Tom Gara at The Wall Street Journal points us to the Tupperware Q4 conference call with analysts, where CEO Rick Goings had some things to say about the American market and consumer.
America is a "Wal-Mart market," said Goings. People don't care about quality – only price.
That's why cabs in New York are "filthy" and "junk" compared to the Mercedes and Audi cabs that you find across the pond in Germany, he said.
Here's what he had to say on the call when asked about the company's business in the U.S.:
One of the issues – this is going to be a hill for us to climb in the U.S. — we are a high-quality product and a brand.
Why do we do better in Europe than we do in the U.S.? Hey, take a look at the average brand of cab that you get in New York City, I mean, they're filthy, they're junk. Get in a cab over here; it's a Mercedes or an Audi.
The USA is basically a Wal-Mart market. Our top tier products like the Microsteamer or the Ultraplus that are 100 year old products hard to sell them in the U.S. because that's a discount market over there. I found this out in my former time in the Beauty business you cannot staff the U.S. and the UK or boots markets, they buy price.
Europe buys quality, Japan quality. And our issue is how do we find the right product mix for the U.S. to make it happen there. And I've got to tell you [Merrill Lynch analyst Olivia Tong] it is challenging.
Burn.
