Spiegel has been in and out of bankruptcy a few times since 2003. Not a good sign.
And just last week Signature Styles, a division of private equity firm Patriarch Partners formed two years ago to purchase Spiegel Brands, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
The Spiegel, Newport News and Shape Fx apparel titles were included in the filing, along with affiliate Signature Styles Gift Cards. Signature Styles is seeking court approval for the sale of its assets by early August.
Signature Styles paid nearly $22 million for Spiegel Brands two years ago. Now Signature Styles wants to bail out. So, what is up next for Spiegel Brands? more
The U.S. Postal Service is absolutely determined to press for five-day mail delivery, believing this will reduce its costs by $3.1 billion a year.
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My favorite website this week is not the most exciting merchant to ever hit the Internet, but it’s one that does a great job with service: 1-800-Contacts. Why do I like it? Because I barely have to spend any time on it—the company knows what I need and when I need it. more
Google just gets it. Yesterday, to honor the birthday of Wisconsin-born guitar legend Les Paul, their home page logo was a “Google Doodle” that had the shape of a guitar with 10 strings that you could play with your mouse, record and email or upload to YouTube. Talk about interactive cleverness! Here’s a link with more details.
I finally got around to watching a promotional DVD titled “40 years of Adam & Eve” that the adult products merchant sent me a few months ago. It was sitting on my desk for too long, and people were starting to wonder why I had adult movies at work.
(Though the cover said it was a “non-explicit DVD for general audiences, it still looks like softcore porn and was probably not a suitable coaster for my coffee mug.)
So I popped the 15-minute DVD into my computer and had a look. And I learned quite a bit…about the cataloger I mean. Here are some fast facts about Adam & Eve:
• The company started out as Population Planning Associates in 1970, selling condoms by mail; customers began asking for sexual aids, and Adam & Eve was born.
• Adam & Eve’s headquarters in North Carolina was raided by 37 armed law officials in May 1986 as part of a federal-state anti-pornography task force.
• The cataloger’s website went live Oct. 3, 1996; it took in 62 orders that day.
• Adam & Eve founder/president Phil Harvey graduated from Harvard with a degree in Slavic languages and literature.
The promotional mini catalog included in the DVD box shows how the Adam & Eve catalogs have evolved through the years, which is always fun to see. It also detailed the company’s philanthropic efforts, which are considerable.
So Adam & Eve has clearly come a long way in 40 years. The least I can do is wish them a happy anniversary.
It’s kind of sad to see merchants of all types hitting the wires with announcements that they reached “X” number of Facebook fans (here’s the latest one).
Sure, it’s a great chest-thumping press release, but does the number of Facebook fans you have tell the story of how great you are in social media?
Many marketers and merchants seem to think Facebook is all about quantity. Quality still matters, and it may be more important than quantity. Here’s why: more
