Fur retailers gear for tough season

SANDY PARKER REPORT, VOL. 32, ISSUE 15, MAY 26, 2008
The following extract is reproduced with permission from Sandy Parker Reports, Weekly International Fur News. Sandy Parker has been covering the fur industry for more than four decades. For most of that time he has published a weekly newsletter, detailing results of international pelt auctions, wholesale price trends, business developments and movements in the trade, as well as economic and political activities that may impact on it.
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International Fur News
with Sandy Parker
Fur retailers gear for tough season
AMERICAN FUR RETAILERS ARE GEARING FOR WHAT COULD BE A DIFFICULT SEASON in view of the country’s economic situation, but there still is a strong undercurrent of optimism. Major retail organizations covering a broad spectrum of products and services that are year-round sellers are already reporting consumer pullbacks, particularly – but not exclusively – in the area of non-essentials. The fur selling season, now mainly concentrated in four months of the year, is still about six months away and those retailers have had little exposure as yet to their customers’ spending plans.
Major fur operators have shopped the new collections and have placed initial orders, but in many cases have yet to send in their confirmations. Although this is normal, those confirmations may take a little longer this year as retailers redefine their needs with a view toward how their customers may react to increased financial pressure and higher prices for food, energy and other essentials. At the same time, however, many smaller operators have yet to even look at what manufacturers have to offer and apparently are in no hurry to do so.
CHARITY DEPT.: In an unscheduled event at the opening of last week’s sale at North American Fur Auctions, the company donated 250 Black NAFA mink to be auctioned for the benefit of the hundreds of thousands of Chinese affected by the recent earthquake in Sichuan Province. The skins were divided into 10 lots of 25 each, the full purchase price to be handed over to the Hong Kong Fur Federation’s China Relief Fund administered by the Red Cross. NAFA had hoped to raise at least $50,000, but the buyers apparently were more generous than had been anticipated, coming up with a total of $76,750, some of the buyers even re-donating their purchases to push the total higher.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Stores Gear for Tough Season
Problem Linked to U.S. Economy
Consumer Spending Seen Curbed
Dept. Stores Reporting Declines
Prices Firm as NAFA Opens
For extracts from back issues of Sandy Parker Reports see News Index. Subscribers can access an archive of complete issues at www.sandyparker.com.
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