E-Commerce is a Money Loser, Minimum Wage Hikes Are a Bad Idea, and Other Musings by a Retail Star

E-commerce is a money-losing business and hiking up the minimum wage is “bull***.” So said retail’s “merchant prince” Allen Questrom, to a standing-room crowd of former colleagues and current acolytes where he was greeted like a retail rock star. The 50-year retail veteran and turnaround CEO of chains ranging from J.C. Penney and Macy’s (then Federated) to Neiman Marcus, shared his unfiltered thoughts on the state of the retail industry during a Retail Marketing Society event last week at the Harvard Club in New York City.