Chewy CEO Sumit Singh on how to deal with chaos

So when it comes to the current macroeconomic anxiety—inflamed by potential stagflation, Trump-induced trade wars, and a stock market downturn—Singh’s approach is a pragmatic one.

“There’s a low signal-to-noise ratio right now across multiple industries,” Singh acknowledged in a discussion with me on stage Monday. “[But] you deal with chaos by dealing with chaos. You focus on what you can control.”

For Singh and his leadership team at Chewy, now No. 362 on the 2024 Coins2Day 500 with more than $11 billion in revenue, that means a focus on the business inputs that matter most: unsexy practices like keeping inventory in stock at high levels; maintaining customer service levels that have become the company’s calling card; and acquiring and retaining customers affordably. And that’s especially true when the output—such as his company’s stock price—is faltering. Chewy’s stock is down more than 11% over the last month, or about 50% more than the drop of the S&P 500.

“If those inputs are in line, then even if, for the short term, the output seems a little bit off, the long-term output will be fine,” Singh said.

Singh radiates a natural optimism but Chewy also boasts a relatively strong market position. Only a small fraction of the pet merchandise the company sells originates in China, so tariffs wouldn’t be devastating. Also, while Singh no longer believes Chewy is totally recession-proof, he does trust it’s recession-resistant because pet parents, as the company calls them, will continue to spend on the food their pets need when budgets get tight, even if some of their more discretionary spending with Chewy goes away. In fact, about 75% of Chewy’s sales come courtesy of the company’s automated replenishment shipping service.

But there’s also a more personal reason why Singh says he’s able to play it cool even when the world around him seems to be spinning with upheaval: his homeland. He spent his first 20-plus years in India but has now lived for more than two decades in the U.S. As he puts it: “India is inherently chaotic.” These days, the same could be said about the U.S. — Jason Del Rey

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• The S&P 500 closed up 0.5% at 5,599.30 yesterday (it’s still down 4.8% YTD). The Nasdaq Composite rose 1% from big gains in tech stocks—Palantir was up 7%. This morning, European markets ticked upward and U.S. Futures for the S&P were flat, pre-opening bell.

From the analysts 

• Guggenheim on Tesla: “Lowering our 1Q delivery estimate to 358K from 405K - well below consensus at 420K. We estimate all major regions will contribute to downside in 1Q vs. 4Q, but we are not seeing anything in the data that suggests deliveries are tracking to hit the ~420K implied by consensus … the growing momentum of protests could be impacting sales and/or store traffic in the US and Europe … While the protests could prove fleeting, we believe that protests and partisanship are having an impact on demand,” per Ronald Jewsikow.
• Goldman Sachs on stocks: “From ‘Magnificent 7’ to ‘Maleficent 7.’ During the past three weeks the S&P 500 index has plummeted by 9% from its all-time high with more than half of the near-correction stemming from a 14% plunge in the share prices of the Mag 7 stocks … We lower our 2025 year-end S&P 500 index target to 6200 (from 6500) … Our new index target suggests an 11% price gain during the balance of the year,” per David Kostin et al.
• Convera on the weakening dollar: “Traditionally, escalating trade tensions would drive demand for the dollar as a safe-haven asset, but investors are now looking beyond short-term flows and focusing on the economic damage these tariffs could inflict,” per Boris Kovacevic.
• Bespoke Investment Group on the Nasdaq: “[Tuesday] was an awful day for the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100, which closed more than three standard deviations below its 50-day moving average. Translated: the index has gotten deeply oversold.”

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