Originally Posted by
Snoopy
Fear.
In a situation like this, it is possible to imagine a future scenario as gloomy as you like and in your own mind it is real. I would suggest 'zooming out' and looking at the bigger picture. First reflect on the facts.
1/ HLG is right at the top of the retail class on stock turn, profit margin and store design. They have no term debt, even if some of those lease terms look onerous right now.
2/ HLG is a gold star tenant that lifts the appearance of any shopping precinct they are in.
3/ HLG sells stuff that everybody needs: clothes
Now consider that if retailing as we know it were to end, who would be the last to turn out the lights. HLG would be near the top of my guesses.
Now consider if the mall owners lose HLG, which other brands would have gone before them? Probably everyone else except the coffee shop. Do you really think the future of shopping centres is as a ghost mall with a coffee shop?
The 'new normal' will be different to what it was. There will be compromises to be made, in rents, in stock turn and maybe even in fashion. And yes shareholders on the 'retail end' and the 'building rental end' will see some pain.
However do you expect Jacinda to spend her next election campaign walking through empty shopping streets dressed in rags, like a cave woman, and handing out shekels to the former retail workers turned squatting beggars so that they can boil up a dessert spoon full of rice for dinner? Get real!
The new reality will be a compromise, but it won't be as calamitous as some here think. Fred Flintstone will be elected prime minister before some of these doomsday predictions for HLG on this forum come true.
SNOOPY