Carol Spieckerman's Brain On...Barneys' Benign Neglect
Today, Retail Wire asked whether Barneys should survive. In her latest contribution as a Retail Wire panelist, Carol wonders how they could.
Here's what she had to say...One of Barneys' weaknesses is that it has been passed around to companies that couldn't help but treat it as an afterthought. Jones Group's history as a wholesale powerhouse made it a dubious choice for a parent back in 2004. Jones is still trying to figure out its future and was certainly not equipped to drive Barneys' upscale brand destiny at acquisition time. Dubai-based Istithmar World's diverse portfolio of holdings and inherently at-a-distance perspective isn't doing Barneys any favors either.
Barneys is a limited-location boutique concept that has been treated as a scalable commodity.