After recuperating for a while, competitors of Cardi International are in store for another relapse, as an announcement made on Friday that was read by an expanded readership of EFN operators is again raising the blood pressure of the tuxedo business.

This time, the news of a sample pack of items in clothing will be joining Cardi’s accessory programs, allowing smaller and moderate size operators to torso mannequins with a super 150’s feel product made in China. In a Just In Time (JIT) chain environment, operators will be able to book weddings against a multimillion dollar inventory position that has quietly landed in the United States and taken residence in an expanded warehouse in Trenton, New Jersey and buy what they need, as they need it.

“It eliminates the risk of overbuying or buying dogs that don’t rent at the store level,” say owners that say they’re at a loss of what to buy and what consumers really want. “No one advertises any more– and those that do only make a sample for a photo shoot but don’t tell us there’s no distribution or production of the products, so we get stuck,” say others. While yet other new readers on free trial subscriptions said, “I mentioned I have nothing but great things to say regarding Cardi. As far as I’m concerned if the “traditional” manufacturers had what I needed during May, guys like Cardi probably wouldn’t have stood a chance. But to Chris’ (Cardi’s) credit, not once have I called for something that wasn’t there and shipped on time, including in May. I think the last time I could say that about After-6 or FLOW was… I can’t even remember.”

Discussions with Chris Cardi today said he remains optimistic that the tuxedo rental trade will find value in his products. “This is why we are selling the goods in sample form for a nominal price. We understand times are getting tougher and we want those that partner with us to be successful,” said Cardi.

Friday’s news continues to hit a nerve, as cryptic e-mails and a proportionately small percentage of Cardi users complain. To date, only a small portion of accounts that have bought Cardi goods say they were disappointed. Cardi has tried to satisfy customers, as best they could but has also told some they could not satisfy them and they should seek goods elsewhere, in a very polite fashion.

EFN continues to be allowed extraordinary insight into Cardi’s plans to further distribute products and is aware on ongoing negotiations with other organizations that could leverage Cardi’s resources and distribution capacity. Neither Cardi, nor the other parties involved would elaborate further.

Posted on E-Formal News, 2-9-2009