open bag ?, page-25

footy, the internet has to have something behind it- the bricks and mortar shops can just set up internet shops. Ten, instead of itvbeing the "experience" of shopping, it becomes about "shopping for the brand" (online). I still think people will shop at bricks and mortar, though, especially for clothes, just like people will always want to shop for food at bricks and mortar places, even though we can now buy groceries online, but which of us does not want to press in the avocado, or the apricot, to see it and touch it before we buy it.

Billabong is just clothes- lucky it doesn't sell white goods or TV's, or it would be more touch and go. However, the current environment is pretty terrible for many things- steel, retail, rare earths have had a rough trot, industrials have been down, even the IT market sector is not doing well. There can be company faults (although BBG has not had much of that, and probably rightly so- I think the market likes management), but everything is just being smashed right now- smooshed like a banana.