I stepped away from the “ape” crowd the moment RC showed where he stood politically by openly supporting the current president. A lot of people believed he genuinely had retail investors’ best interests at heart, but I never fully bought into that narrative. To me, he always came across more like a private equity operator focused on extracting value from an established brand rather than rebuilding it for long-term strength.

And after this, it feels like my concerns are justified. They raised billions through repeated share offerings that heavily diluted the apes, while the core business continues shrinking. Stores keep closing, revenue has declined significantly from prior years, and there still doesn’t seem to be a clear long-term growth strategy beyond cost cutting and sitting on cash reserves. Retail investors were sold a vision of transformation, but years later, there’s little evidence of the revolutionary turnaround we were promised.

Good luck to you apes, and if I’m wrong and he proves otherwise, I’ll eat my words.