Syms
Syms Says Its Real Estate More Lucrative Than Its Retail (But, Cries Marcy, We're Not a REIT!)
Syms -- the family-controlled bargain clothing retailer with a massive and massively ugly white department store on Trinity Place -- admitted to shareholders that it earns more from its real estate holdings than from its clothing sales, yet Marcy Syms, the CEO, continues to insist the company is not a REIT.
Ms. Syms said that the company earned $2 million last year in rent from its property holdings nationwide, yet only a meager $807,000 in net revenue from clothing sales, according to an item in today's Wall Street Journal.
As The Observer reported last week, many shareholders suspect the Syms family, which still owns 57 percent of the company stock, of trying to take the company private again, so it can reap more of the dividends from its growing real estate empire -- which includes a growing assemblage of air rights and properties around its store in the Financial District. read more »
Is Syms Stitching Big Deal Downtown?
Syms is an eerily quiet department store housed in an ugly white building that crouches low on Trinity Place. Most of its windows are bricked up. Its outlandishly nice staff, “educators” in Syms parlance, tend to row after row of neatly hung blazers and pantsuits.
Now and again, in the otherwise silent shop, the disembodied voice of a man calling himself Richard Syms makes an announcement about gift cards. It’s unclear to whom the announcement is directed. The store, at 5 on a Saturday afternoon, is nearly deserted.
Syms, the off-market chain known for its black paper bags proclaiming “An educated consumer is our best customer,” purports to be a retailer. read more »
'An Educated Customer Is Our Best Customer'
