i admit it. i have this wierd desire to read martha, inc. not so much to dig into the swearing-bitchy-i’ll-run-you-over side of martha. no, i’m more interested in how she’s managed to accomplish such a staggeringly successful parasitic invasion of kmart:
“The numbers are very clear on this. There’s no ambiguity in them. Kmart’s revenues have basically been flat for a decade. They haven’t grown at all. What’s grown is Martha’s share of those revenues. And what that means is that she’s just sort of moved into that business like a kind of virus that’s spread from Aisle 6 all the way to Aisle 1.
A lot of the merchandise in those stores now carries the Martha Stewart brand name. And it didn’t begin that way. They’re not selling more. She’s just cannibalizing shelf-space and everything else.”