Urban Outfitters
Urban Outfitters Inc. owns Urban Outfitters stores, Anthropologie stores, and Free People stores. I have received Urban Outfitters and Free People catalogs this week, and if I receive an Anthropologie catalog, I'm going to start complaining. I've never shopped at any of those stores, and I don't particularly want to shop at them.
I find it amusing that these stores, which cater largely to the urban youth and the new hippy ideologies, are run by at least four guys who make over half a million bucks a year and have millions of dollars in stock options to exercise at their respective whims. I guess the people who shop there don't care or don't know. No wonder they sell flip-flops for $35. They have to keep food on the CEO's table!
The fifth guy in the "key executives" part of this corporation is the general counsel, who earns a paltry $345 000.
Comments
I agree with you that it is ironic that all that overpriced crap is marketed toward people who have the least disposable income. But I have to hand it to those senior executives. They have found a very effective way to separate fools from their money. On the issue of CEO pay, of course, many CEO's receive ungodly huge compensation packages. The CEO of my company, JP Morgan Chase Bank, receives a base pay of $7.5 million annually, plus whatever options are granted to him, which is usually in the tens of millions range. Like Colin said, CEO's have to put food on the table, too. Their food is just a bit different than our food, of course. You know, foie gras as an appetizer, filet mignon stuffed with crab meat, with a side of fresh New England lobster tail, topped off with an ever-so-rich chocolate souffle...that stuff don't come cheap.
And while I'm ranting, did you hear about Howard Stern and his compensation package for joining Sirius Satellite Radio? Dude is getting a five year contract in which he is making $500 million over the course of the five years. A half a billion dollars to be a potty mouth on satellite radio. I can't be upset with Stern...he certainly has also found a way to separate fools from their money. It's disconcerting, though, that some would find him that valuable.
Posted by: arc | January 14, 2006 08:36 AM