Report of Talbots’ Death – Premature?

Writer and retail analyst Hitha Prabhakar told Yahoo Finance that Talbots Inc. (Hingham, Mass.) was one of three retail brands not likely to survive into 2014.

Appearing on a segment of Yahoo’s Breakout, Prabhakar also foretold the doom of Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. (Anaheim, Calif.) and Avon Products Inc. (New York).

Her verdict on Talbots was that it no longer knew to whom it was trying to sell, sometimes being too dowdy, sometimes too fashion forward. When, in desperation, it surveyed its own customers, it was told that shopping at Talbots made them feel their real age.

PacSun, she said, is losing out to everyone else selling casual wear to teens, including the department stores and, especially, the Internet.

And as for Avon, makeup is another crowded and highly competitive field, and cultural tastes have changed. “People don’t want people to come to their homes anymore,” Prabhakar noted.