Liquidated 50% and still happy with that decision. One day I think I shouldn't have liquidated and the next day I think I should have done 100% so seems like I'm happy with what I did. Probably been a good move on half the stocks and bad on half of them so far. Perhaps a smarter move would have been moving into different stocks but the stock market isn't my area of expertise.
Meanwhile we've made huge investments in more retail stores, moving in a totally opposite direction from the general view. We will acquire or open 25% more new stores in 2020 than in our biggest previous year. Now, many of the store openings were defensive measures but you can either let what is going on in the market destroy you or you can seek solutions. Our wholesale business has been threatened by the problems of Bloomingdales, Macy's, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Belk, Dillards, Saks, Hudson Bay, Ann Taylor, The Loft, and Lord and Taylor (closed) so we added stores to pick up the business and made our first overseas sales to Germany and Australia.
In the failure of many and the bankruptcies filed, what gets lost is those adding. Right now, just look at the growth of Amazon, Walmart, Target, the success stories of Lowes, Home Depot, Tractor Supply and Ace, the increases by Dollar General and Dollar Tree, growth by At Home, Five Below and the acquisitions by Simon, Brookfield and Authentic Brands in acquiring Forever 21, Brooks Brothers, Lucky Brand (all this after previously acquiring Aeropostale) and now about to acquire JC Penney.
I always remind myself that for every seller, there is a buyer or no transaction takes place. We constantly must look around and reexamine things. I feel horribly for restaurants in this time but then I ask them one thing. As you saw Doordash, Grubhub, Postmates and others building a lot of delivery business and charging you amounts that hurt you, why didn't you move quickly into doing your own deliveries. Why did only Pizza restaurants grasp that so firmly that delivery and pickup work. We deliver from every one of our retail stores and 95% is in our own vehicles.
I feel for every business hit by the pandemic and struggling. I know many had trouble paying their rent, but then I know that 99% of all landlords negotiated with tenants for reduced rents. Malls are dead I read but yet Simon only collected 40% or so of their rents during some months and still made money during second quarter.
Yes, the economy has been horribly hurt during the pandemic and many businesses destroyed, but the American people aren't going to stop shopping, aren't going to stop wearing clothes, aren't going to stop buying furniture.
I'll cite one example of pandemic success that may surprise some. Second Quarter of 2020 vs. same quarter of 2019. Online sales at acehardware.com were up 493%. So, what happened to physical stores? Same store sales were up 35.3%.
Now I'm horrified by the unemployment and those not technically unemployed but greatly underemployed. I hope we step up to help all. I'm even more concerned about the floodgates opening on evictions and foreclosures. For all those given reprieves for months the day of reckoning is coming and, as of now, there is no plan to aid any of them.
There are segments of our population badly hurt as those 50 and older who have lost jobs due to the pandemic aren't being hired by those adding so many employees. Not by Amazon warehouses or to work retail for grocers or Walmart. I looked at our own numbers. We've received over 20,000 applications in 2020. Fewer than 3% have come from those over 50. I understand 55 year olds don't want to sew in plants or work retail in apparel. But we must address their situation. I fear we'll see a great increase of those taking social security at 62 and living on far less through retirement.
I know I've strayed off track as we talk about investments but ultimately it all ties together and we invest in stocks, in businesses, but we must invest as well in our people and we have more people in pain and hurting financially and scared of the future than ever in my lifetime. I'm happy we've been able to hire 2100 people this year, even though very little compared to Amazon, Walmart, and Target and such. However, I'm bothered by the reminder that the vast majority of those have been under $50,000 a year with a disproportionate number starting between $30,000 and $40,000.
As to investments in the market and what to do, I still have no idea. I still expect a very large downturn, but then I already expected that and it's not happened as I thought it would. In investments I follow conventional wisdom and worry as opposed to business where I'm a contrarian and defy the crowd noise. So looks like on investments I'll end up half right, just have no idea which half yet.
Meanwhile we've made huge investments in more retail stores, moving in a totally opposite direction from the general view. We will acquire or open 25% more new stores in 2020 than in our biggest previous year. Now, many of the store openings were defensive measures but you can either let what is going on in the market destroy you or you can seek solutions. Our wholesale business has been threatened by the problems of Bloomingdales, Macy's, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Belk, Dillards, Saks, Hudson Bay, Ann Taylor, The Loft, and Lord and Taylor (closed) so we added stores to pick up the business and made our first overseas sales to Germany and Australia.
In the failure of many and the bankruptcies filed, what gets lost is those adding. Right now, just look at the growth of Amazon, Walmart, Target, the success stories of Lowes, Home Depot, Tractor Supply and Ace, the increases by Dollar General and Dollar Tree, growth by At Home, Five Below and the acquisitions by Simon, Brookfield and Authentic Brands in acquiring Forever 21, Brooks Brothers, Lucky Brand (all this after previously acquiring Aeropostale) and now about to acquire JC Penney.
I always remind myself that for every seller, there is a buyer or no transaction takes place. We constantly must look around and reexamine things. I feel horribly for restaurants in this time but then I ask them one thing. As you saw Doordash, Grubhub, Postmates and others building a lot of delivery business and charging you amounts that hurt you, why didn't you move quickly into doing your own deliveries. Why did only Pizza restaurants grasp that so firmly that delivery and pickup work. We deliver from every one of our retail stores and 95% is in our own vehicles.
I feel for every business hit by the pandemic and struggling. I know many had trouble paying their rent, but then I know that 99% of all landlords negotiated with tenants for reduced rents. Malls are dead I read but yet Simon only collected 40% or so of their rents during some months and still made money during second quarter.
Yes, the economy has been horribly hurt during the pandemic and many businesses destroyed, but the American people aren't going to stop shopping, aren't going to stop wearing clothes, aren't going to stop buying furniture.
I'll cite one example of pandemic success that may surprise some. Second Quarter of 2020 vs. same quarter of 2019. Online sales at acehardware.com were up 493%. So, what happened to physical stores? Same store sales were up 35.3%.
Now I'm horrified by the unemployment and those not technically unemployed but greatly underemployed. I hope we step up to help all. I'm even more concerned about the floodgates opening on evictions and foreclosures. For all those given reprieves for months the day of reckoning is coming and, as of now, there is no plan to aid any of them.
There are segments of our population badly hurt as those 50 and older who have lost jobs due to the pandemic aren't being hired by those adding so many employees. Not by Amazon warehouses or to work retail for grocers or Walmart. I looked at our own numbers. We've received over 20,000 applications in 2020. Fewer than 3% have come from those over 50. I understand 55 year olds don't want to sew in plants or work retail in apparel. But we must address their situation. I fear we'll see a great increase of those taking social security at 62 and living on far less through retirement.
I know I've strayed off track as we talk about investments but ultimately it all ties together and we invest in stocks, in businesses, but we must invest as well in our people and we have more people in pain and hurting financially and scared of the future than ever in my lifetime. I'm happy we've been able to hire 2100 people this year, even though very little compared to Amazon, Walmart, and Target and such. However, I'm bothered by the reminder that the vast majority of those have been under $50,000 a year with a disproportionate number starting between $30,000 and $40,000.
As to investments in the market and what to do, I still have no idea. I still expect a very large downturn, but then I already expected that and it's not happened as I thought it would. In investments I follow conventional wisdom and worry as opposed to business where I'm a contrarian and defy the crowd noise. So looks like on investments I'll end up half right, just have no idea which half yet.
