Charming Charlie = Ghost of Christmas Past?

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Charming Charlie LLC is in trouble with a financial advisor out in the market seeking a bridge loan. The news cannot be helping with suppliers in the lead-up to the holidays. Anyone paying attention knows that both Toys R Us and Bon Ton Stores ($BONT) had similar liquidity issues recently which were compounded by suppliers tightening terms. The former ended up filing for bankruptcy. The latter just got a rescue loan to last it through the holidays (after which, if we had to bet, it will disappoint and have to file for bankruptcy). More likely than not, the WSJ story didn't do the company any favors. Remember: Toys R Us blamed a CNBC story, in part, on its accelerated plunge into bankruptcy court.

Incredulous: Meal Kits as Savior for Grocers? C'mon.

Are Meal Kits Kroger's Defense Against Amazon? 

This makes no sense: "to compete with Amazon, grocers could start purchasing meal kit companies" (CNBC). Wait. What? Right, because all of the meal kit companies have demonstrated sustainability and profitability. CNBC states, "Some meal kit companies seem receptive to the idea." Hahaha. Of course they are! CNBC neglects to highlight Blue Apron's ($APRN) post-IPO chart but, suffice it to say, it ain't exactly pretty. That said, when your numbers look like those put out by Kroger ($KR) this week, maybe desperate times call for desperate measures.