Valley Views

valley views Off-price retailers, too good to be true?

Most of us love a good bargain. Price plays perhaps the biggest role in purchasing decisions across nearly all domains. Nowhere is this more evident than in the fashion and apparel industry where many brick-andmortar stores have been subject to a financial pummeling in the last decade. This “retail apocalypse” has been spurred by the explosive and seemingly unstoppable growth of Amazon. Yet, in a small tuckedaway corner, a very specific kind of retail store has been thriving in the otherwise barren landscape: off-price retailers.

First and foremost, what exactly is an offprice retailer? Think of stores like TJ Maxx and Ross, known for carrying an ever-evolving selection of items at very affordable prices. Shopping there feels like a life hack: somewhat inconsistent, but with the potential to discover substantial bargains on namebrand items, primarily clothing. Too good to be true? Are they putting other stores out of business? No, in fact, the opposite is true. Actually, stores like these play an important role in the retail ecosystem and even have a role in aiding other stores. The secret lies in the three strategies these stores use to acquire their peculiar selection of items.

The first and bestknown method is purchasing surplus goods from other retailers. This happens when a department store or more premium retailer wants to clear out excess goods to free up funds to invest in new product SKUs. In the retail world, vast sums of money are invested to create new items. Investment is only recouped once the created product sells through. If a given item doesn’t sell well enough, the primary retailer might choose to recover a part of their investment by selling the product, or “dead stock,” to off-price retailers at a very low price. The off-price retailers then sell the items at their famously low prices. TJ Maxx has the most advanced team of brokers who specialize in working directly with other stores to liquidate their dead stock. In the ‘90s when off-price retailers were just beginning to thrive, securing merchandise was primarily done this way. However, the supply of surplus inventory from other areas of the retail system is finite.

As off-price stores flourished, searches began for other ways to secure low-cost inventory to keep their shelves stocked. A second avenue for acquiring wares emerged: factory excess goods. When a retailer places an order with a garment factory, the factory will often produce more than the ordered amount. Why? Re-tool costs between production runs are very high. If a factory is already making 100,000 units for an order, several thousand extras are easy to make. The extra items can cover replacing any defective items, but often much is leftover. The factory will then sell this excess to the off-price retailers, sometimes with the original brand and sometimes with an off-brand. For a while, these first two methods satisfied the demand of off-price retailers. But alas, even this could not fully stock the shelves, leading to a third method.

In recent years, offprice retailers have taken a page out of the other retailers’ playbooks by pursuing their own original product development. To lower costs, such goods are manufactured with low-cost materials and feature unsophisticated designs. TJ Maxx, Ross, and similar stores rely on a mix of all three methods to keep their stores stocked.

With an ever-changing inventory, low prices mixed with strong perceived value, off-price retailers have prospered while most other physical stores have fallen on hard times. Nevertheless, their vital link in the retail world’s intricate ecosystem ensures the excesses of the market are managed. To the average consumer, bargain stores seem almost too good to be true. For savvy consumers, a treasure trove of bargains awaits-by discovering the higher tier retailer’s dead stock. ben there

DONE that Ben Stone Media Production, Valley Journal

Special session will do more harm than good

For the past eight years I have served on the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee, six as Chair. When combined with my eight years in the House, I have spent more time evaluating the Public Service Commission’s (PSC) regulatory duties and commissioners than anyone in the legislature. The PSC consists of five members, each elected from a distinct geographic Montana district, whose primary charge is keeping your lights on and power costs low.

Previous efforts made by the legislature to redraw the PSC district boundaries to correct for population imbalances as required by the Constitution (one man, one vote) died in committee, as both parties sought to gerrymander seat boundaries to their benefit. Further, prospective PSC candidates, while still serving in the legislature, worked to ensure they had a favorable seat for their upcoming race. Despite the growing population imbalance between Districts, the Chair of House Energy did not redraw district boundaries this session, perhaps because he planned to

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LETTER POLICY

Letters to the editor are welcome. The content is the opinion of the letter writer and not the newspaper. The decision to publish letters is made by the editor.

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Letters may be edited for content or length, or may not be published if considered libelous, in poor taste, spiteful, self-promotional or of limited interest to the general readership. Space limitations also dictate when or if letters are published.

Letters must be signed by the author and name, address and phone number must be included – phone number is for verification purposes only. Letters from organizations must include the name of at least one author.

Please limit “thank you” letters to four people/organizations or less. Deadline is 5 p.m. Friday to publish the following week.

Opinions expressed in this section are not necessarily those of the newspaper.

special session will do more harm

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run.

A federal court has intervened. The court, recognizing the unconstitutionality of the current PSC District population imbalance, has indicated that a 3-judge panel (2 from Montana, 1 from California) will engage in redrawing PSC districts. Now there are legislators clamoring for a Special Session to draw districts – including the previously uncooperative Chair of House Energy. I do not support a special session. Hastily drawn district lines from an expensive short special session will just kick the can down the road. The right temporary solution is to let the court rapidly engage, then the legislature can do a thoughtful permanent fix in the 2023 session, a short 10 months away.

A hastily called special session will do more harm than good, especially as there are legislators that will work to extend the session to include their pet topic. This will waste tax dollars and stick the public with 10 more years of questionable PSC policy decisions. The current call for a special session is the final act of individuals who repeatedly chose to ignore their statutory obligations. As such, I adamantly oppose the call.

Duane Ankney serves as Chair of Senate Energy and Telecommunications committee

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Get involved

Editor,

To those independent voters out there - in spite of the effect any of these letters have on our area politics and leadership, it is you who put people into office. This is what we are told by historical journalists who don’t have a side other than finding out why something occurs.

No political party has a majority in Montana. One certainly has a bigger population and if left unchecked will abuse our laws to suit their views. The issue of voting rights for every eligible voter and the right to control your own body for everyone becomes corrupted from the ideals of our country. The writer who wrote about the anti-vaxer claiming it was his right to choose how to use his body and not be vaccinated yet is not also concerned with a woman’s right to control her body exposes a hypocrite.

Depending on your Christian religious affiliation abortion is either ok with God or not ok with God, but the rhetoric they spew is that their religious beliefs should outweigh yours. Two-way streets are often turned into one-way streets by those you help put in office, either with your vote, or many times when you choose not to vote.

So, I am asking you to be involved in politics when the time comes and make a conscious decision and take the effort to vote. You can prevent those like we now have in power from leading our country into a nation like we have seen elsewhere come to power throughout history, or currently in Russia. You can prevent the liberties and values we have from being lost to the future and to our children’s lives.

Did you ever think you would live to see armed ‘patriots’ attempt to overthrow our government? Whatever they label themselves and however they justify their actions - it was an attempted coup. And you can prevent it happening by even a small action and involvement.

Rich Bell Polson

Montana’s rivers and lakes threatened

Editor,

A Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) report in 2020 determined that 35% of our river miles and 22% of our lake acres are impaired by harmful levels of nutrients. The fact is, these figures do not even include waters being polluted by industrial waste from coal fired power plant operations, radioactive wastes from fracking, wastes from mining activities, oil and gas leaks, pesticides, plastics, and pharmaceutical contaminants. Why would Montana’s GOP Legislators and Governor Gianforte risk further impacting our remaining high quality water resources by not using the best available tools to protect this invaluable resource? As a result of the recently passed Senate Bill 358, Montana’s DEQ plans to replace our states scientifically based “numeric” water quality standards with a subjective “narrative” evaluation system to monitor nutrient pollution in our rivers and lakes.

Pollution is like a cancer on the environment. We manage cancer by using scientifically proven blood tests, biopsies, and CAT scans. We use the best available science. We would never want our doctor to only give us a subjective evaluation for cancer by telling us we look fine.

Our rivers and lakes deserve the same science-based approach. High water quality in the state has benefited our citizens for many years providing clean drinking and irrigation water, productive and healthy

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FWP seeks comment on draft EA for annual pheasant release

News from MT FWP

MONTANA — Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is seeking public comment on a draft environmental assessment on a proposal for the annual release of pen-raised ring-necked pheasants on suitable state lands.

FWP has administered a pheasant release program since 1987, which has involved releasing pen-raised pheasants on private lands for population augmentation and increased hunting opportunity. In March of 2021, following legislative action and funding, a new pheasant release program was established to support recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R3) efforts in Montana. This new component of the program aims to engage youth in the sport of hunting, promote hunter success and provide additional hunting opportunities for hunters of all ages.

Under this legislation, FWP will continue to develop and implement this program and release up to 50,000 pheasants annually on any suitable and eligible state-owned lands. Some releases will occur a few days before the youth pheasant season opener to maximize opportunity for youth hunters, and some releases could occur later in the months of October and November to increase hunting opportunities for hunters of all ages.

Pheasants released through the program are required to be stock from National Poultry Improvement Plan certified hatcheries that have tested negative for certain poultry diseases. Plans are underway for the State Prison in Deer Lodge to begin raising pheasants for this FWP program. FWP will provide funds for start-up costs for the prison to begin raising pheasants. The prison will provide pheasants only to FWP. If pheasants are not available from the prison in 2022, FWP may purchase birds from private producers.

In September 2021, the first season of this effort, FWP released 2,094 pheasants on seven WMAs in FWP Regions 3, 4, 5, and 7, prior to the youth pheasant season opener. The initial release resulted in good satisfaction for youth hunters who were hunting lands where birds were released.

To view the EA and provide comment, go online. Comments can also be emailed to: doneill@ mt.gov or sent to Fish, Wildlife & Parks, P.O. Box 200701, Helena, MT 59620-0701, Attn: Deb O’Neill. Public comment will be accepted until Feb. 28.

letters

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fisheries, and a magnate for tourists. This could soon change. Protecting the state’s water quality is a complex business with lots of potential point and non-point pollution sources to monitor. Montana deserves better than a “narrative” approach. If you don’t quantify it, how do we protect it? DEQ is currently accepting comments through Feb 2 at loryn.johnson2@mt.gov.

Craig McClure Polson

Level the playing field

Editor,

Polls showed that the Freedom to Vote Act was favored by the majority of Americans.

Yet Senator Steve Daines voted against it. Last week he sent emails about his vote against it saying it was a federal takeover.

While we don’t necessarily agree with every provision in the voting rights bill, answer us this:

What is wrong with having federal minimum standards for federal elections for the purpose of electing federal congressional members who collect a federal paycheck paid for by federal taxes?

In other words, what’s wrong with leveling the playing field across the 50 states?

Caryl Cox, Polson Stephanie Brancati, Big Arm

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Governor gets feedback about ag policy impacts

News from the Office of the Governor

EAST HELENA — Governor Greg Gianforte recently visited Diehl Ranch Co. in East Helena to discuss the impact of progrowth, pro-jobs policies on the state’s agriculture industry.

“For too long, Montana producers have had to pay taxes on equipment that sits around for most of the year, and it just doesn’t make any sense,” Gov. Gianforte said. “To protect the bottom lines of our hardworking ag families, we tripled the business equipment tax exemption, allowing producers to grow their operations and create more good-paying Montana jobs.”

After hearing from agricultural producers across the state, Gov. Gianforte worked with the Montana Legislature to triple the business equipment tax exemption from $100,000 to $300,000 through his Business Investment Grows Jobs Act.

The tax reform measure removed over 3,400 businesses around the state from the burden of the business equipment tax.

Mark Diehl, the owner of Diehl Ranch Co., told the governor how the BIG Jobs Act has helped the Diehl family invest in its operation.

“Ag producers rely on expensive, complex equipment and machinery throughout the year to get the job done. This tax reform measure by Governor Gianforte is a huge help to our operation and the ag industry,” Diehl said.

During the tour, the governor reiterated his desire to continue working with the Montana Legislature to further reduce the burden of the business equipment.

COURTESY PHOTO Gov. Gianforte speaks to Mark Diehl, owner of Diehl Ranch Co., about the impact the BIG Jobs Act has had on his operation.