Crazy for Coach

Sunday my wife and I went to a Coach (COH) outlet store at the Allen outlet mall in Allen, Texas. She had received a 20% off coupon in the mail and wanted to get a couple of wallets. We thought we would just stroll in and grab what she wanted...boy were we in for a surprise! I'm sure part of the craziness was due to it being so close to Christmas, however, the Coach store was noticeably busier than any of the other stores at the outlet mall. First, we had to stand in a line outside the front door and wait to get in, like a high-end night club. Once the line got sufficiently long, it was at least 100 ft., and enough people cleared out of the store, presumably to avoid violating the fire code capacity limit, the door man let us and a lot of others in the store.

Once in the actual store, we noticed that it was still very crowded. Unfortunately for my wife, the wallets that she wanted must have been popular because they were sold out in the black and brown colors that she wanted. So instead of the wallets she picked out a purse, she had to get something since we went through all the trouble of just getting in the store. While she shopped, I noticed a line that wrapped around the store...the line to check out. I went ahead and got in line and then she met up with me once I finally got close to the check out counter.

I'm not posting about this experience to recommend buying Coach stock, I just think that the crazy demand for the purses is interesting and certainly worth keeping an eye on. Eventually, every woman who wants one will have their own Coach purse, whether it's an expensive one from the regular store a cheaper one from an outlet mall...what matters seems to be that its a purse that bears the distinct "C" pattern cloth. It will be interesting to see what happens to this company when the purses saturate the market to that level...could be an excellent short. For now though, the trend is certainly up and you'd be stepping in front of a freight train if you attempt to short this right now.

Here's the daily and weekly chart for COH, notice the strong uptrend:
Have a great day!

TLT