Now that all this dot-com bubble is behind us, the Bear Stearns brokerage is ordering its employees out of chinos and back into suits. To help, the ever-helpful Brooks Brothers store across the street is staying open late and giving Bear Stearns's employees a 20 percent discount.
A couple of observations:
- Business must be bad indeed. If there was money sloshing around the joint, the company would be encouraging employees to shop at the much-higher-toned Paul Stuart store around the corner.
- Gotta love the fact that Brooks Brothers's business model isn't entirely unlike Bear Stearns. Market goes up or market goes down, the brokerage gets paid on the trade. And whether the memo says casual or dress-up, Brooks gets paid whenever anyone shifts gears.
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