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How Nasty Gal Went from an $85M Company to Bankruptcy

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Re: How Nasty Gal Went from an $85M Company to Bankruptcy

#11

Post by cyberferret »

vogt wrote: post #8
merb wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could a site make an article behind a paywall that's available for free somewhere else, especially if it's not their article... getting money from others work seems a little bit odd.

yeah, no clue. after seeing this article behind a paywall I simply googled "nasty gal" and the results returned this article first and a LA Times version of the story second. no paywall on the LAT for me. whether or not the story was the same quality, I have no idea.

I believe if you click the 'web' link under the title of the article here on HN, it will take you to a Google search page which will (sometimes) show you other sources for the same article.

Also, I've been getting around the paywall from Washington Post and NY Times etc. by right clicking on an article I know comes from their site and selecting 'Open in Incognito Window' in Chrome. The lack of cookie tracking gives me infinite free article previews.

(Yes, I do feel a little guilty about this and will pay for a subscription to one or both papers to support them sometime soon). :)

Re: How Nasty Gal Went from an $85M Company to Bankruptcy

#12

Post by alaskamiller »

ghshephard wrote: post #10
alaskamiller wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Revenue is vanity. Profit is reality. Selling $85MM in 2014 is nifty, but fashion industry is hard. Average EBITA is maybe 10%: http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/the-s... to realize how brutal it is. Let's piece this together... She had 280 FTE at 2013 and got into a lease for 500k sqft warehouse: http://www.inc.com/30under30/donna-fenn/nasty-gal-sophia-amo... At ~$60k/yr avg and we'll pretend a…

Your cost, ~$60/sqft, on industrial warehouse space is off by a factor of about 10. http://www.kcrea.com/cre/louisville-ky-industrial-space-for-... It goes for around $5-$6/SF annually.

No, in commercial real estate when you say $30/sqft it's already annualized. That's 30 / 12 = $2.5/sqft/mo. Also you're looking at listings for 10k or less, at 500k space it's a very very very different game.

Re: How Nasty Gal Went from an $85M Company to Bankruptcy

#13

Post by smcl »

cyberferret wrote: post #11
vogt wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, no clue. after seeing this article behind a paywall I simply googled "nasty gal" and the results returned this article first and a LA Times version of the story second. no paywall on the LAT for me. whether or not the story was the same quality, I have no idea.

I believe if you click the 'web' link under the title of the article here on HN, it will take you to a Google search page which will (sometimes) show you other sources for the same article. Also, I've been getting around the paywall from Washington Post and NY Times etc. by right clicking on an article I know comes from their site and selecting 'Open in Incognito Window' in Chrome. The lack of cookie tracking gives m…

You're not the only one feeling the guilt. The only journalism I was paying for (well paying currency for at least) was my Private Eye subscription for a couple of years, but I found that I didn't want to read it in paper-form. I'd gladly have paid the same amount (which was something like a couple of pounds a month) or more if the same material was available online too.

update: just checked on a whim and it seems that some time over the last couple of years Private Eye have a completely new online portal. Time to put my money where my mouth is :)

Re: How Nasty Gal Went from an $85M Company to Bankruptcy

#14

Post by ghshephard »

alaskamiller wrote: post #12
ghshephard wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your cost, ~$60/sqft, on industrial warehouse space is off by a factor of about 10. http://www.kcrea.com/cre/louisville-ky-industrial-space-for-... It goes for around $5-$6/SF annually.

No, in commercial real estate when you say $30/sqft it's already annualized. That's 30 / 12 = $2.5/sqft/mo. Also you're looking at listings for 10k or less, at 500k space it's a very very very different game.

Wouldn't you get a break on larger warehouses versus smaller ones?

Also, as a comparable, I'm checking out this:

https://www.houston.org/newgen/17_Commercial_Real_Estate/17C...

San Francisco (highest I could find) - is $34.32/sq foot/annually. So, applying your rule, one would pay $34/sq/foot/month. So - a typical 1500 square foot commercial office would be $51,000/month? Seems high even for San Francisco. If we instead divided by 12, $2.86/sf/month, then $4300/month for 1500 square feet seems within the realm of reason.

How certain are you that these rates are already converted into monthly values?

I found one monthly rate for Kentucky, 2,500 - 8,432 SF, $1,016 - 5,578 (Monthly).

That would be $0.40/month - $0.66/month, or, multiplied by 12, $4.80-$8/year. Right within the expected range.

Re: How Nasty Gal Went from an $85M Company to Bankruptcy

#15

Post by DanBC »

cyberferret wrote: post #11
vogt wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, no clue. after seeing this article behind a paywall I simply googled "nasty gal" and the results returned this article first and a LA Times version of the story second. no paywall on the LAT for me. whether or not the story was the same quality, I have no idea.

I believe if you click the 'web' link under the title of the article here on HN, it will take you to a Google search page which will (sometimes) show you other sources for the same article. Also, I've been getting around the paywall from Washington Post and NY Times etc. by right clicking on an article I know comes from their site and selecting 'Open in Incognito Window' in Chrome. The lack of cookie tracking gives m…

This no longer works reliably for the WSJ.

Re: How Nasty Gal Went from an $85M Company to Bankruptcy

#16

Post by ghshephard »

ghshephard wrote: post #14
alaskamiller wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, in commercial real estate when you say $30/sqft it's already annualized. That's 30 / 12 = $2.5/sqft/mo. Also you're looking at listings for 10k or less, at 500k space it's a very very very different game.

Wouldn't you get a break on larger warehouses versus smaller ones? Also, as a comparable, I'm checking out this: https://www.houston.org/newgen/17_Commercial_Real_Estate/17C... San Francisco (highest I could find) - is $34.32/sq foot/annually. So, applying your rule, one would pay $34/sq/foot/month. So - a typical 1500 square foot commercial office would be $51,000/month? Seems high even for San Francisco. If we inst…

Here's good comparable with monthly and annual rates (it's big, modern):

http://www.kcrea.com/listing/29969851/9101-Minor-Ln-Louisvil...

324,730 sq feet. $3.95 PSF/Annual or $106,890/month.

$106,890 * 12 = $1,282,680/year / 324730 sq feet = $3.95/year/sq foot.

And you get 35 Docks on 21 acres to boot.

Re: How Nasty Gal Went from an $85M Company to Bankruptcy

#17

Post by cm2012 »

ghshephard wrote: post #16
ghshephard wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't you get a break on larger warehouses versus smaller ones? Also, as a comparable, I'm checking out this: https://www.houston.org/newgen/17_Commercial_Real_Estate/17C... San Francisco (highest I could find) - is $34.32/sq foot/annually. So, applying your rule, one would pay $34/sq/foot/month. So - a typical 1500 square foot commercial office would be $51,000/month? Seems high even for San Francisco. If we inst…

Here's good comparable with monthly and annual rates (it's big, modern): http://www.kcrea.com/listing/29969851/9101-Minor-Ln-Louisvil... 324,730 sq feet. $3.95 PSF/Annual or $106,890/month. $106,890 * 12 = $1,282,680/year / 324730 sq feet = $3.95/year/sq foot. And you get 35 Docks on 21 acres to boot.

I appreciate you taking the time to do this research. A great HN conttibution.

Re: How Nasty Gal Went from an $85M Company to Bankruptcy

#18

Post by jmcgough »

I saw several small fashion startups pop up in the bay area after Nasty Gal got big revenue numbers. They all were obsessively trying to replicate them and chase after their success (even to the point of copying Amoruso's way of writing and NG's edgy image). I have a feeling we'll see a few less copycats now.

In unrelated news, Nasty Gal seems to be running a 70% off everything sale right now to dump inventory.

Re: How Nasty Gal Went from an $85M Company to Bankruptcy

#19

Post by [deleted] »

ghshephard wrote: post #16
ghshephard wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't you get a break on larger warehouses versus smaller ones? Also, as a comparable, I'm checking out this: https://www.houston.org/newgen/17_Commercial_Real_Estate/17C... San Francisco (highest I could find) - is $34.32/sq foot/annually. So, applying your rule, one would pay $34/sq/foot/month. So - a typical 1500 square foot commercial office would be $51,000/month? Seems high even for San Francisco. If we inst…

Here's good comparable with monthly and annual rates (it's big, modern): http://www.kcrea.com/listing/29969851/9101-Minor-Ln-Louisvil... 324,730 sq feet. $3.95 PSF/Annual or $106,890/month. $106,890 * 12 = $1,282,680/year / 324730 sq feet = $3.95/year/sq foot. And you get 35 Docks on 21 acres to boot.

[deleted]

Re: How Nasty Gal Went from an $85M Company to Bankruptcy

#20

Post by ykler »

ghshephard wrote: post #16
ghshephard wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't you get a break on larger warehouses versus smaller ones? Also, as a comparable, I'm checking out this: https://www.houston.org/newgen/17_Commercial_Real_Estate/17C... San Francisco (highest I could find) - is $34.32/sq foot/annually. So, applying your rule, one would pay $34/sq/foot/month. So - a typical 1500 square foot commercial office would be $51,000/month? Seems high even for San Francisco. If we inst…

Here's good comparable with monthly and annual rates (it's big, modern): http://www.kcrea.com/listing/29969851/9101-Minor-Ln-Louisvil... 324,730 sq feet. $3.95 PSF/Annual or $106,890/month. $106,890 * 12 = $1,282,680/year / 324730 sq feet = $3.95/year/sq foot. And you get 35 Docks on 21 acres to boot.

Great work. Do note that this is an NNN lease, though, which means the tenant pays property tax and operating expenses. For a new warehouse like this one, this site says these fees average 58% of the base rent: http://fgpcl.com/what-to-expect-with-triple-net
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