In January, Pier 1 Imports announced it was closing up to 450 stores. Later that month, two other prominent retail brands—the high-end audio manufacturer Bose and the paper-goods chain Papyrus— reported their own significant closures. And yet, on the same day that Macy’s announced it was laying off 2,000 workers and closing 125 stores, I was arriving at the San Francisco offices of a startup called Le Tote…where a very different kind of thinking was going on.
Le Tote is not a brick-and-mortar business. It’s a fashion-rental company. Users subscribe by the month and can rent and return (or buy) entire wardrobes. But last November, seemingly out of nowhere, this eight-year-old startup purchased the 194-year-old department store chain Lord & Taylor for $100 million. The move raised many serious questions, most of which boiled down to: What?!? In 2018 alone, Lord & Taylor lost more than $100 million. Why in the world would a digital firm want anything to do with a floundering mall cornerstone?
THE DIGITAL WORLD, IRL Le Tote’s rental studio, at a Lord & Taylor in Yonkers, N.Y., lets customers interact with both brands in person; the store’s exterior (far right).
That’s why, when I sit down with Le Tote’s founders, Rakesh Tondon and Brett Northart, there seems to be only one question worth asking: “Are you crazy?”
“You’ve got to be contrarian,” Northart says jokingly. Tondon smiles and says, “That’s where the outsize returns are!”
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 2020 من Entrepreneur magazine.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 2020 من Entrepreneur magazine.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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