April Sneed
November 30, 2012
Kaplan University
Victoria Secret, a subsidiary of Limited Brand LTD, began its operations in the United States in the 1970’s. The company has faced many uphill battles and many successes. Victoria Secrets American operations are head quartered in Reynoldsburg, OH. Currently the successful lingerie and beauty product store has more than 16,000 employees domestically and operate over a thousand retail stores domestically. To accurately measure the success of Victoria Secrets operations domestically the company’s economic indicators will be reviewed and discussed.
An economic indicator is defined by the Economics and Statistics Administration (2012) as, “The Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA) releases 12 monthly and quarterly Principal Federal Economic Indicators collected by its constituent bureaus: the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Businesses rely heavily upon these indicators to make decisions every day. In their public comments, the Secretary and ESA’s Under Secretary and Chief Economist put the indicators into a national and global economic context (About Economic Indicators, par 1). The economic indicators that will be examined are: advance monthly retail sales; manufacturers’ shipments, inventories, and orders; personal income and spending; inflation or the customer price index, currency strength, and corporate profits.
Advance monthly retail sales is a report of the actual value based on the dollar a range of good and services is worth. The advance monthly retail sales report is relevant to Victoria Secret because it gives a fair measure of both the goods Victoria Secret offers compared to competitive offerings of lingerie products. It allows Victoria Secret to see how the competitions pricing is influencing the market and possibly enticing customer’s that are cost conscious to buy their products. By using the advance monthly retail report Victoria
References: About Economic Indicators. (2012). Economics and Statistics Administration (1) par 1. Retrieved on November 30, 2012 from http://www.esa.doc.gov/about-economic-indicators Michelle. (2008). Victoria Secret. Supply Chain. Retrieved on November 30, 2012 from http://victoriasecretgrp5.blogspot.com/2008/11/supply-chain.html Piana, V. (2001). Inflation. Economics Web Institute. Retrieved on November 30, 2012 from http://www.economicswebinstitute.org/glossary/inflat.htm