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Jacquelyn Donner, PMP

How in the world did this horrific economic crisis happen so fast? Suddenly we are hearing that the economy is on the verge of collapse and it only seems like a few months ago that we were pulling teeth just to get some economists and politicians to even admit there was a slight recession going on. It just goes to show that you can not put much stock in what some people say. Of course, homeowners, business owners, working folks, and even retired folks have seen this coming for a while now whether the bigwigs, so to speak, wanted to admit it or not.

When you go to the gas station to fill up your car and fuel costs a dollar or more a gallon than it did last year, there is a problem. When you go to the grocery store and almost everything you put in your cart seems to have gone up ten percent or more, there is a problem. When neighbors all around you are losing their homes to foreclosure and you are in serious jeopardy of being next in line, there is definitely a problem.

What average Americans now wants to understand is why there are so many of these big company executives making millions of dollars every year when the companies they are in charge of running are going broke? Even if some of chief executives have been let go or downright fired, they are taking severance pay of more millions with them. What is up with that? The last time average Americans checked, we did not get bonuses for screwing up our job when it had an adverse affect on the company we work for. For average people there certainly are no rewards involved.

What we want to know now is why we must allow our tax dollars to rescue all of these companies? We have been told that it will not help us directly to catch up our delinquent home mortgage payments and we probably will not be getting fuel for our cars any cheaper, it will not even make the cost of milk, eggs, and bread go down at the grocery store.

Maybe it might be true that in order to prevent a domino effect for every area of our economy, that the government must do something to clean up the big mess that has been allowed to take place, but there must be some measures put in place to make sure that big companies do not run themselves in the ground with risky loans and over paid executives and then expect the government to bail them out. Hey, the restaurant down the street does not get bailed out or the local grocery store that is an old family owned business. These kinds of small business hate to have to shut down too, but the government does come in and rescue these folks now does it?

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The first public face, outside of the original Charm Shoppes store, of Charming Shoppes was the Fashion Bug stores which opened in the 1960’s. Considered pioneers of computerized inventory management and sales, Fashion Bug stores were wildly popular and expanded quickly all the way through the 1990’s.

In 2000 Charming Shoppes purchased Catherine’s Stores Corporation in an effort to firmly plant themselves into the plus size women’s clothing market. They followed this quickly with the purchase of Lane Bryant in 2001, adding the plus size powerhouse to its already successful Fashion Bug and Catherine’s dynasty. It quickly followed the Lane Bryant acquisition with the launch of Pettite Sophisticate, a store catering to smaller size women.

If we take a look at the company’s financial performance based on their stock price, we see that in 1993 they split their stock, and immediately afterwards saw a sharp decrease in stock price over the next three years (adjusted for split price). That brings us to 1996, a year when the Charming Shoppes successfully remade itself as a socially responsible company by helping women and children in need, focusing on women’s’ health issues, and brining attention to family and financial issues that women face. This program was championed by then CEO Dorrit J. Bern, and marked an immediate, sharp rise in stock price that lasted through the year.

Charming Shoppes stock price continued to fluctuate up and down over the next several years, but moved generally in an upward trend. It was seemingly unaffected by the acquisition of Catherine’s and Lane Bryant, and was in a holding pattern through much of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

In 2003 we see a sharp rise in the stock price that has continued through h2007 before seeing any decline whatsoever. This can be directly tied to the opening of the Lane Bryant website to internet sales, a move that brought an incredibly lucrative new revenue stream in for the Charming Shoppes Corporation. Sales have declined in 2008, one can assume in part due to the prevailing economic conditions in the country.

Compared to previous years, sales for the Charming Shoppes Corporation are down $265 million over the first two quarters. That’s 20% of their total sales. Not something to take lightly. Taken as separates, Lane Bryant is down $47 million, Fashion Bug is down $69 million, and Catherine’s is down $24 million. It’s possible that they’ll make up the difference in the second two quarters of the year, but historically they have had very few strong 3rd and 4th quarters.

What does this mean for the plus size fashion industry? Not much, but the Lane Bryant sales figures are a good indicator that there is quite a bit less demand for plus size clothes so far this year. One can assume this is due in part to less disposable income due to the slowing economy and gas prices since none of the other large fashion houses has seen a comparable rise in sales.

Allen is a freelance writer who follows fashion topics at many different levels. Look for more information on plus size designer clothes, plus size designer fashion tips and designer plus size shorts here.