During the day I'm a mild mannered investment writer (you can see my articles by clicking the Motley Fool link there over on the right), but after noon I turn into a full-fledged home haunter. Okay, maybe half-fledged.However, today while researching a company, I came across an Associated Press story discussing retail same store sales. Comps, as they're known in the business (for "comparables"), are an important metric for companies because it lets investors know what kind of growth they're getting from actually running their business and not buying up competitors or opening new stores.
They listed the September comps for The Gap (down 4%), The Buckle (up 13%), TJX (+4%), and a company I never heard of before -- Zombies Inc. (same store sales were up 10.1%).
I can't decide whether the writer was just being cheeky, it being October and all, or whether this is a real company. I have a number of resources available to me to research businesses, and none of them list Zombies Inc. as a business. I found a Triathlete Zombie Inc. (a bike shop), a band called Zombie Inc., and a video game developer, also going by Zombie Inc. (but also known as Zombie Studios), but no clothing retailer called that.
The funny thing is, a bunch of other media outlets picked up the AP story and ran it verbatim, Zombie Inc. reference and all (if you think the media aren't just sheep, think again).
Now I do think the reporter was just having some fun -- I can't imagine a business named that would go unnoticed for so long -- but in the event I've missed a new retail outlet, please let me know.
Indeed! I will be keeping my dry white corpse eyes peeled for this one.
ReplyDeleteCool! I didn't know you write for The Motley Fool. They did a story on dividends that favorably, mentioned my employer Atmos Energy.
ReplyDeleteNow I don't know if the story writer had Halloween on their mind when they wrote it, and simply made substituted what they were thinking for what they wanted to write, but it seems they were actually going for the store Zumiez, a snow and skateboard oriented chain. They had similar comps numbers. Too bad, because I think a store called Zombies Inc. would be awesome.
ReplyDeletescreaminscott, I've been with the Fool since the late '90s, have been writing for them for about 7+ years, and doing it full time for about 4+ ever since I retired as a cop. A great place for new investors to learn and for experienced ones to get some deep value too. I learned just about everything I know about investing from them.
Cheers,
Rich