The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 27 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Zimmer: Successor Doug Ewert was not qualified to run Men's Wearhouse
“Look, I know I told you that Doug would be a good replacement, but after a couple of years, I was wrong. He's not qualified to run the company”
Zimmer: Men's Wearhouse stole Macy's tuxedo rental deal during legal review
“My team and I were in New York in Terry Lundgren's office, the CEO of Macy's, making a deal to be the... Tuxedo. Tuxedo rental, and we had the deal. It went to legal review, and while it was in legal review, Men's Warehouse stole it.”
Men's Wearhouse intercepted Generation Tux's exclusive rental deal with Macy's
“My team and I were in New York in Terry Lundgren's office, the CEO of Macy's, making a deal to be the... Tuxedo, rental, and we had the deal. It went to legal review, and while it was in legal review, men's warehouse stole it.”
Zimmer admits CEO replacement Doug Ewer was unqualified to lead company
“Look, I know I told you that Doug would be a good replacement, but after a couple of years, I was wrong. He's not qualified to run the company”
Zimmer offered $90 million to buy back K&G after his firing
“Because after I was fired, The first thing I tried to do was buy K&G from Men's... For ninety million dollars.”
George Zimmer: Men's Wearhouse Ouster Was 'Capitalism Run Amok'
“I see what happened at men's as really an example of capitalism run amok.”
Zimmer: American retail consumers are not fooled by constant promotional sales
“It was though everybody in retail thought that the American consumer was stupid, and actually, they're not as stupid as those people thought.”
Zimmer: K&G helped Men's Wearhouse raise gross margin by 1,000 bps
“Men's warehouse stores were able to raise the gross profit percentage by a full 10%, which is a thousand basis points over a decade, because K&G was protecting our opening price point position.”
Zimmer: Men's Wearhouse blocked K&G sale over four-year non-solicit demand
“Well, at first, they wouldn't sell it to me at all. Then they said, alright, If you give us a four year non-solicitation. And I said, what do you mean by that? And they said, you can't hire our employees for four years. And I said, are you kidding? I'll give y…”
Flanker brand K&G enabled Men's Wearhouse to raise gross margins 10%
“K&G provides a unique opportunity for an offensive and defensive strategy, and they didn't quite understand what that meant, and so what it means is men's warehouse stores were able to raise the gross profit percentage of By a full 10%, which is a thousand bas…”
Dressing room 'shirt stacking' technique drove major retail upsell revenue
“When a man purchased a suit while he was in the dressing room, we would put together shirts, ties, belts, shoes, everything that would make the outfit really jump. Then we would present it to the customer, and we were not, in my mind, pushy, but we were Not pa…”
Zimmer: Houston's Rapid Growth Saved Men's Wearhouse From Early Mistakes
“Dallas was old money, Houston was new money, so that for a young upstart like myself trying to create a business, the chances were much greater in Houston, and in fact since I didn't really know anything about the retail business when I opened Men's warehouse.…”
Zimmer: Urban marketing expenses make running a single retail location unsustainable
“The marketing expenses in a major urban area are so high you can't really run a single location. You need multiple locations.”
Zimmer: Men's Wearhouse sold white-labeled Cerruti suits for $199 versus competitors' $299
“I beat him, and we got Nino Cerruti suits, white labeled, but at a 20% purchase discount, which enabled us to sell them moderately profitably at one 99, when everybody else in America was selling them at two 99.”
Zimmer: No buyer has offered half of my $90M bid for K&G
“To this day, they still can't find anybody that would offer them Half of what I was going to pay them.”
Zimmer: Men dread shopping, so proactive bundling is perceived as service
“Men look at going into a clothing store like going to the dentist's office. So their wife says to them, I made you a dental appointment, and it's like the worst thing that the man can imagine. So they put off coming in to a clothing store until they can no lon…”
Founders acting as TV spokespeople significantly boosts internal employee morale
“When you are a spokesperson for your own business, of course you're doing it to affect the external world. You want more business. But what happens is that, and we were in a retail business with hundreds or thousands of employees, the workforce loves the fact …”
Zimmer secured wholesale Nino Cerruti suits by winning a basketball bet
“I beat him, and we got Nino Cerruti suits, white labeled, but at a 20% purchase discount, which enabled us to sell them moderately profitably at one 99 when everybody else in America was selling them at two 99.”
Zimmer: Men's Wearhouse followed $13M IPO with higher-valuation secondaries
“Because although we had an IPO that only raised thirteen million, we then had four or five secondaries. Each secondary was at a higher value.”
Zimmer: K&G division generated $400 million across 100 stores
“We owned a division called K&G, and K&G did four hundred million. We had a hundred stores, and it was a super store in the sense that it was 25,000 feet, and it was men's and women's, and the price points were below men's warehouse.”
Zimmer: Men's Wearhouse did $3,000 opening Saturday and $60 that Monday
“Well, we did 3000 the first Saturday. And then Monday we did 60 dollars, and so I would not say it was a success right away.”
Zimmer: Men's Wearhouse opened 50 stores annually with $1M inventory each
“We started opening 50 stores a year, or a store every week. So if you can imagine, each store costs about a million dollars in inventory.”
Zimmer: Co-founder Harry Levy bought one-third of Men's Wearhouse for $3,000
“Harry Levy had been my fraternity brother and was from Dallas, and I had called him up and said, would you like to move to Houston and do this with me? And he said, well, what's in it for me? And I said, well, I'll give you a third of the company for three gra…”
Zimmer: 'I Guarantee It' Slogan Began as an Unscripted Commercial Ad-Lib
“It happened as an ad lib, and as I was ad libbing the commercial, I'm having an inner dialogue with myself while I'm Speaking. I didn't have much time since I was in a live recording, and all I could think of was, I guarantee it.”
Men's Wearhouse expansion required $1 million in inventory per new store
“No, I mean, first of all, with the money that we got from the IPO and secondaries, we started opening 50 stores a year, or a store every week. So, if you can imagine, each store costs about a million dollars in inventory.”
Zimmer sold a one-third stake in Men's Wearhouse for just $3,000
“Harry Levy had been my fraternity brother and was from Dallas, and I had called him up and said, would you like to move to Houston and do this with me? And he said, well, what's in it for me? And I said, well, I'll give you a third of the company for three gra…”