US Market Mindset

October 27, 2025

Good morning! Do we really need to have two people fighting over who should be the one to make us a peanut butter & jelly sandwich — without crusts?! When did we stop being able to make our own sandwiches? Sadly, the tomatoes — and ground cherries — are done for the year. We were hit with the first hard frost of the year on Thursday and Friday of last week. The menu now dramatically segues to squash, wild rice, meatloaf, varietal beans, cranberries, roasted garlic, pot roast, and ____________.

• Misty Copeland completed her Swan Song at The Met this past Wednesday evening.  (Pun intended)
• How to lose $15,000,000,000 and to have no idea where it went?
  • Meet Nicholas Puech, heir to the Hermes fortune, maker of the stylish handmade leather Birkin bag… available in a rainbow of colours.
  • … suddenly without a house or a home (isn’t that redundant?).  (Maybe the axiom is hearth and home?)
  • The lesson here:  Trust but verify… at all levels.
• Speaking of, where did the money go, the United States is now $38,000,000,000,000 in debt and counting exponentially as of a few days ago.
  • According to one of my kids who is pretty good at the math, that is $327,000 per taxpayer — almost enough for a down payment on a house (or a horse), but…
  • … note that’s per taxpayer, and lots of citizens don’t pay taxes.
• “When the amount of deviant behaviour rises, people begin to redefine deviant behaviour as normal.”  (Brooks/ Moynihan)
• Business leaders everywhere are making pilgrimages to Bentonville to drink at the WalMart water trough.
  • (I’ve been there myself to pay homage to Sam’s old pickup truck — and a few other things — but admittedly not to consult with the top dawgs.)
    • WalMart stock is up by more than 400% in the last eight years…
    • It all started by giving employees an increase in pay…
    • It was 13.79%, not so outrageous looking back on it, but it was audacious — and considered reckless — at the time.
    • Why did they do it?  The claim is they listened to their employees.  (Can you imagine?!)
    • From $14.50 to $16.50 — stock plunged, sales lagged, but now… WalMart is back — and with an entirely new shopping experience.
• CEO Olivier Bron on Bloomingdale’s and the retail experience:
  • “One thing that surprised me in the U.S. market is the mindset that is very, very focused on the short term.
    • Most of the leading luxury flagships in the world are owned by families and individuals who have a long-term focus.
    • High digital penetration in the U.S., and shareholder structure lead to a strong short-term business but result in a lack of investment in the store experience,
    • in the things that make the department store truly unique versus what you would experience in a mall or in a boutique.
    • I think it’s very important for Bloomingdales and its leaders to keep an eye on what’s happening in department stores elsewhere in the world.”  (Bron)
  • “When you come to Bloomingdales, we want you to be able to spend your day there.
    • The way we welcome you, the way we serve you, the restaurants and food options, all the experiences you can have at the store —
    • it all has to be way more interconnected than it is today.”  (Ibid.)
  • “Right now, I have more information on our customers than frontline colleagues do.  It’s absolute nonsense.
    • I can give you information about our top customers in two minutes on my computer.  If you ask the same thing to a frontline colleague, it might take a lot of time.
    • Bringing the right information to the right person at the right moment…
    • We have so much data, but we’re not using and leveraging even one percent of it.”  (Ibid.)
• Personal note:  I first experienced the L. L. Bean vibe on a day in June 45 years ago — at three o’clock in the morning.  (It was open 24 hours a day, part of the vibe.)
  • The vibe was similar to what I think Bron is suggesting or referencing up above.
  • I hadn’t been back to L. L. Bean in 45 years, but rekindled that retail relationship this past August.
    • It’s not unlike Helen’s Pies… someone MIGHT do it as well or even better, but we don’t know who.
• With your permission — and patience — here is another snippet from the draft of my book, How Do You Know?
• From the chapter, BE READY:  “I will prepare and some day my chance will come.” (Abraham Lincoln)
  • On the occasion of first meeting my future wife,
  • and following a near-gluttonous performance courtesy of her homemade lasagna and cheesecake,
  • we strolled a half mile to a neighborhood park where we spent the entire night in conversation, growing from casual acquaintances to something more.
  • Fortunately, the weather was cooperative and I don’t remember being bothered by mosquitoes.
  • I had to report for work at five o’clock that next morning and so it was a short evening with no sleep.
  • After hiking her back home six or seven blocks and then driving back across town to my house to change into my work clothes, I looked in my mirror saying aloud,
  • “Well, this is what you’ve wanted; what are you going to do about it?!”
  • It still took me five or more days to work up the courage for a second meeting with her and it probably wouldn’t have happened at all without an intervening tornado.
  • But, I was ready.
  • By the third encounter and a mediocre Mexican meal, we were engaged.
  • We were married nine months after that.
  • The marriage would have happened much sooner but she thought we were moving too fast – though she agreed to the engagement after just thirteen days of knowing each other.
    • “I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”  (Mr. Lincoln)
    • (Continued next week, maybe…)
• For those of you who mark the occasion, Happy Feast of All Hallow’s Eve!
  • A few of you jumped the gun and got started in September; that’s a lonnng holy day.
  • Nearly one-fourth of the country thinks of All Hallow’s Eve as the #1 best holy day of the year.  (CBS News)
• There was a heavy frost on the lawn and the Maple was losing its leaves at the rate of about 100 per minute.
  • The result was a pillowy layer of yellow and red atop the white-tipped blades of grass.
  • Gorgeous… if you took the time to observe.
• Among my favourite poems of all time is one hanging on my office wall by Gene McCarthy of Watkins, MN (U.S.)