News Munchies
Blue Light Flickers on Martha's Products
Originally Posted
Updated
In 2001, 80+ percent of Martha Stewart's merchandising revenue came from her exclusive Kmart bed and bath line. The $24.9 million in revenue was a small portion of the $210.6 million her no-longer-homespun ventures generated for the enterprising homemaker in the first three quarters of the year.
Yet, at only nine percent of her revenue, merchandise accounts for over a third of her profits, a handsome feat in the face of losses in other divisions and a not-too-skippy advertising climate.
Kmart, with enough troubles of their own making, wasn't pleased when Stewart, purveyor of one of the retailer's few hot brands, confided in Newsweek that bankruptcy of the country's second-largest discounter would not be good -- at least not for her merchandising strategy and up-scale housewares.
Thanks so much for all the help and support, Martha.
Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, and Kohl’s are sharpening their elbows and pencils to snag Stewart from the decaying Kmart, which always seemed a strange, low-rent match for her tonier merchandise.