Maybe someone, apart from Danny Devito, might remember the movie Other People's Money. It was about new ideas versus old ones, about money for money's sake pitted against money for community's sake. It was one of Gregory Peck's last roles. He played the owner of a small wire and cable company. His company looks like a great bargain for corporate raider, Larry the Liquidator who is played by Danny DeVito. The film is a morality play of how things used to be in American business set against how things are today. This film is always a good watch and absolutely instructional.

The above introduction brings me to Gottschalks Inc., headquarted in Fresno, CA. Gottschalks is a smallish department store chain that has turned a profit the last two years of over $5 million. It's stock hit a low in 2003 at just above a buck a share but now is at over ten dollars per share and has seen comp sales gains the last several months leading into the Holiday season. This not Target, WalMart or Federated that we are talking about here. Just a western regional department store chain with about 73 stores total.

With the above information one would think things were on the upswing at Gottschalks, with good corporate leadership in place and both stock and sales on the rise, but you would be wrong.

Thesis Capital Management has come out this month with very critical remarks about the company. In a very recent letter, Thesis Capital Management dressed down Gottschalks stock performance as "appalling when compared to its department store peer group."

Thesis Capital Management owns less than 5% of Gottschalks currently.

"The profit growth is anemic ... and because of that, the stock price has been all over the place," weighed in Brian Hamilton, senior analyst with ProfitCents, a financial information service.

See you later Gottschalks. It was nice to have you in the southern San Joaquin Valley for those 100 years but with your comapny now viable, we can destroy your credibilty with paid off analyst jive, lower your stock price to buy in cheap and then merge or sell outright. This way we reap big profits, put a lot people out of work and create lots of vacant buildings in moderate sized cities throughout the western United States.

Thanks, Thesis Capital Management. Now go fuck yourself!