Investing megathread extravaganza

[DaFace]

A place to talk about investing stuff.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

One stat I liked when I was younger was that back in the day, Sears accounted for 1% of the US GDP. For every $100 spent in the US economy, $1 of that was spent at Sears. That is how big they were.

A few years ago, though, Wal-Mart was 2% of the economy, so I guess it's not quite as amazing as I thought.

I wonder where Amazon ranks these days.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by DaFace

I wonder where Amazon ranks these days.

Apparently way behind. According to this list, Wal-mart sales are $350 billion compared to $61 billion for Amazon. 2015 data

https://nrf.com/resources/annual-ret...retailers-2016

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by DaFace

I wonder where Amazon ranks these days.

In order to completely derail the thread, wife tells me Wal-Mart has free 2 day shipping to compete with Amazon.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

In order to completely derail the thread, wife tells me Wal-Mart has free 2 day shipping to compete with Amazon.

While looking up the stat above, I learned somewhat to my surprise that Wal_mart is the second-biggest online retailer. Their $13 billion in sales is dwarfed by Amazon's, but they're still number two.

[scho63]

Originally Posted by scho63

Not this week. I screwed up and missed TSLA. Wanted to jump in over a week ago and stock just keeps chugging higher.

I need to find a few goodies to look at.

I'm not big of bank stocks but they certainly will benefit from Trump and rising rates.

Do you ever buy any LEAPS?

TSLA Tesla up to $280 from $225 on Jan 6, 2017 when I wanted to get in.

If I bought the LEAPS, I would have made a HUGE score.

Sadly, this is my history

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

One stat I liked when I was younger was that back in the day, Sears accounted for 1% of the US GDP. For every $100 spent in the US economy, $1 of that was spent at Sears. That is how big they were.

A few years ago, though, Wal-Mart was 2% of the economy, so I guess it's not quite as amazing as I thought.

This has no value to the thread, but I remember reading once that McDonald's purchased something like 5% or 8% or thereabouts of the entire U.S. potato crop.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Come out here. It's all high schoolers, and they probably don't even know what most of the tools in there are. If they do, they're too busy playing grab ass to actually do any selling.

I will say the outfit here has a price match policy on the outdoor stuff. Probably on their appliances and other hardgoods too.

But looking at their store, they're done. I could look up their retail metrics, but they're done. The biggest player in the direct business for a ****ing century. Done.

When I was a kid living in rural middle America, the big three were Sears, JC Penney, and Montgomery Wards. Apparently that business model doesn't work any more.

The thing that's somewhat ironic is that Sears and Wards were to some extent a primitive version of Amazon. They sent you a catalog, you called in your order, and then they had a warehouse-type place where you went to pick it up. That's pretty much exactly Amazon's model, but Amazon has the internet. One wonders why the classic catalog stores never got ahead of the curve.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Apparently way behind. According to this list, Wal-mart sales are $350 billion compared to $61 billion for Amazon. 2015 data

https://nrf.com/resources/annual-ret...retailers-2016

Ah. It's good to know that I account for half of Amazons gross.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Ah. It's good to know that I account for half of Amazons gross.

If you have $30 billion to spend, you and I need to have a chat...

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

This has no value to the thread, but I remember reading once that McDonald's purchased something like 5% or 8% or thereabouts of the entire U.S. potato crop.

Not surprised by that at all.

I was working at McDonald's when they FIRST introduced salads across the chain. The United States went into an immediate lettuce shortage. I'm completely serious.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

When I was a kid living in rural middle America, the big three were Sears, JC Penney, and Montgomery Wards. Apparently that business model doesn't work any more.

The thing that's somewhat ironic is that Sears and Wards were to some extent a primitive version of Amazon. They sent you a catalog, you called in your order, and then they had a warehouse-type place where you went to pick it up. That's pretty much exactly Amazon's model, but Amazon has the internet. One wonders why the classic catalog stores never got ahead of the curve.

I don't know what happened at those companies, but at Cabela's, they had about played out the direct business and growth had plateaued. Meanwhile, their few retail stores were profitable and there was some regional carryover where the retail stores were. So they rolled out a really aggressive retail plan, primarily just to get in front of more customers.

Then 2008 happened (kind of. It really started when gas prices spiked in 07 and they were sensitive to the effect of gas prices on their destination stores, but 2008 really wrecked shit) and suddenly these big expensive buildings were well, expensive.

I would anticipate similar things happened in the mall scene. Get a big retailer to come in, give them some tax breaks (Cabela's was working the property tax angle pretty hard), and you can get your direct products in front of a lot more people for relatively cheap. I can see how a company can think that a cost of sale would be cheaper in retail when malls got absurd traffic than printing and postage. Then this damn internet makes it cheaper for the direct sales again.

Now, Cabela's was asking their people to drive and their website drove a lot of traffic, so that added a different element to the fall of retail, but I can see it.

Innovation is hard, man.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by DaFace

If you have $30 billion to spend, you and I need to have a chat...

If I wouldn't do the bookkeeping, I'd swear that's close.

[ChiliConCarnage]

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/flo...res-state-says

OCALA, Fla. - A 48-year-old Ocala man was arrested on allegations that he tried to plant bombs in Target stores along the East Coast, with hopes of capitalizing by purchasing cheap shares of the retail store's stock.

An explosives expert determined the devices were capable of causing property damage, serious injury or death to nearby persons upon detonation.

According to authorities, Barnett theorized that Target's stock value would plunge after the explosions, allowing him to cheaply acquire shares of stock before an eventual rebound in prices.

I feel like he didn't spend enough time on the investing portion of his plan.

[scho63]

Originally Posted by ChiliConCarnage

OCALA, Fla. - A 48-year-old Ocala man was arrested on allegations that he tried to plant bombs in Target stores along the East Coast, with hopes of capitalizing by purchasing cheap shares of the retail store's stock.
Quote:
An explosives expert determined the devices were capable of causing property damage, serious injury or death to nearby persons upon detonation.

According to authorities, Barnett theorized that Target's stock value would plunge after the explosions, allowing him to cheaply acquire shares of stock before an eventual rebound in prices.


I feel like he didn't spend enough time on the investing portion of his plan.

He should have bought PUT options FIRST to benefit from the initial collapse. His ISIS financial adviser should be fired.

In a related story from 9-11, there was a SURGE is shorting and put buying shortly prior to the 9-11 tragedy, making many people to believe that at least one Middle East state or regime knew of the pending attack.

[Demonpenz]

I met with edward jones yesterday. I got jack shit for money and I just figure I will spend money to get my ass handed to me so I can figure out what doesn't work for me.