Leadership - The Robin Report

Patagonia: The Robin Report Retail Hit of the Week, 9. 26. 26

Unlike a certain President of the United States who offered a bordering-on-bribery $5,000 to anyone who voted Republican in the midterm elections, Patagonia—the iconic, admired outdoor outfitter—is giving up 112,000 customers who sign up three people to vote a $100 discount in its stores or it will make a donation of the same amount to the League of Conservation Voters.

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AI and the Extinction of Retail

Technology / By Barry McGeough

The creators of AI are sounding the alarm. No regulatory cavalry is riding over the hill to insulate your business from systemic failure. We are the only ones who can save us. If we choose to pave the way to the frontier, we must do so with prudence and unyielding human control—or prepare to be optimized out of our own businesses.

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Mara Sirhal: Leading Through Self-Reflection

Management / By The Robin Report

Mara Sirhal is SVP Merchandising Home at Target and candidly describes the retail business as tough; consumer count is declining. leadership teams often aren’t aligned, and friction points develop complicating a very volatile industry.

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So, What Are Retailers Doing With All Those Tariff Refunds?

Operations / By Warren Shoulberg

Billions of dollars’ worth of refunds have been issued, and America’s retailers have used

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Old Navy Is Caught In a Doom Loop

Management / By Pam Danziger

Old Navy’s move into beauty isn’t reinvention — it’s dilution. A mature brand adding tangential categories without fixing its core may help it hold on a little longer, but ultimately it only accelerates the doom loop.

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J. Peterman: The Most Famous Fictional Retailer in America

Management / By Warren Shoulberg

The famed mail-order catalog was a better TV plotline than a retailer, and it appears to have made its last curtain call. Its real-life hero, John Peterman, was as fictional a merchant as the stories in his catalog.

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Tim Cook The Robin Report Retail Hit of the Week 9. 6. 26

Tim Cook: The Robin Report Retail Hit of the Week, 9. 5. 26

Management / By Warren Shoulberg

With the possible exception of Greg Abel following Warren Buffet, there’s probably been no tougher succession with more pressure than what Tim Cook faced when he took over Apple from Steve Jobs 15 years ago. Cook has done a magnificent job leading Apple and doing it in a totally different way than Jobs did.

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Profile in Resilience: T Robinson, Serial Disruptor

Management / By Deborah Patton

T’s professional journey has been spontaneous: “I would say that if you look at my career trajectory, no one could say it was well planned. I got out of the army, went to school, got a fellowship, moved to Syria on an academic fellowship, and came back and never finished school. Then I ended up working for some tech dudes.”

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Buc-ee’s: The Robin Report Retail Miss of the Week (Again) 8. 29. 26

Management / By Warren Shoulberg

We don’t usually call out a company twice in a month, but honestly this deserves it. We recently cited Buc-ee’s ridiculous lawsuits against companies with what they thought were similar names or animal logos.

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Nike: The Robin Report Retail Miss of the Week, 8. 22. 26

Operations / By Warren Shoulberg

Hey, don’t get us wrong, we’re all in favor of retailers testing new store concepts and experimenting with different formats. But how long is it going to take Nike to get anything right? The report that they are shutting down their Nike Live—rebranded as Nike Well Collective (whatever that means)—it’s another dead end for a brand that was once king of the footwear and sports apparel sectors; now it seems in a foot race to failure.

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