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January 2008
- Retail Scores Big on Unused Gift Cards
  
  New York Times | Jan 5, 08 8:20 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Retailers are likely rubbing their hands with glee after shoppers snapped up $97 billion in gift cards this year, up from $83 billion in 2006. Why the excitement? The industry makes billions each year from “breakage," or gift card money that is never spent. Lost, discarded, or under-used cards amounted to $7.8 billion in “free money” last year, the New York Times reports. More »
December 2007
- Designer Perfume Profits Give Off Whiff of Decay
  
  Wall Street Journal | Dec 24, 07 6:41 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Perfume makers keep flooding the market with designer brands, but consumers appear to have had their fill. Global revenue from high-end perfumes—those $100 and up—increased only 3% to $18 billion in 2006 and is expected to slow even more this year, reports the Wall Street Journal. That's while sales for other luxury items are on the rise. "All the new perfumes resemble each other too much," says one consumer. More »
- Retailers Slash Prices to Boost Slumping Season
  
  Bloomberg | Dec 23, 07 6:43 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Retailers slashed prices nationwide this weekend in a bid to draw last-minute shoppers and lift a slumping holiday season, Bloomberg reports. Pressed by high gas and food prices, consumers are holding out for zero-hour deals; retailers have obliged with half-off sales and extra hours, counting on the last days before Christmas for 9% of season sales. More »
- Best Buy Profit Soars 52% in 3Q
  
  Wall Street Journal | Dec 18, 07 12:21 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - A consumer hankering for big-ticket items—and a willingness to pay closer to full price for them—helped Best Buy's third-quarter profit rise 52%, reports the Wall Street Journal . Absent last year's discounting on flat-screen TVs, the country's largest electronics chain posted Q3 net income of $228 million, or 53 cents a share, versus 31 cents a share a year earlier and analysts' forecast of 41 cents. More »
- Ho-Hum Season Sees Drop in Women's Apparel Sales
  
  New York Times | Dec 17, 07 2:07 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Women's spending on apparel for the first half of the Christmas season is down, alarming retailers and spawning broad worry in the industry. Experts blame a bleak economy and blah fashions for a slump of nearly 6% compared with a year ago, reports the New York Times . Men’s clothing sales, on the other hand, rose 4.5% in the first 20 days of the season. More »
- Nov. Retail Sales Up 1.2%; Sky May Not Be Falling
  
  Bloomberg | Dec 13, 07 10:09 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - November’s retail sales confounded doomsayers, surging 1.2%, twice the 0.6% analysts predicted, Bloomberg reports. Many had worried that consumer spending would take a hit as gas rose and housing fell, but now it looks like job and income growth could cushion the fall. “The numbers should help put to rest some of the fears of sliding into recession,” said one economist. More »
November 2007
- Web Lifts Holiday Gloom of Retailers
  
  Reuters | Nov 23, 07 10:38 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - Cyberspace may be this year’s favorite holiday destination as shoppers looking for bargains and trying to escape crowds eschew traditional brick-and-mortar malls for a cornucopia of retail opportunities online, reports Reuters. Retailers from Apple to Wal-Mart offered some of their best deals online starting Thursday, trumping the traditional Black Friday shopping madness that starts the day after Thanksgiving. More »
- Black Friday Getting Longer
  
  Associated Press | Nov 22, 07 8:08 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Stores will open earlier than ever on Black Friday, with midnight openings becoming more common, the AP reports. Wal-Mart, in fact, began its sales today. "You sell two sweaters and you've broken even,” said one analyst. But Gap chief Glenn Murphy will be out with the hordes, then crunching numbers. “There is a point from an industry perspective where you get diminishing returns.” More »
- Macy's Vows to Revive Chicago Flagship
  
  Chicago Tribune | Nov 19, 07 10:44 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Macy's is changing course to revive Chicago's former Marshall Field's, a downtown fixture that was struggling when Macy's took over last year and has only done worse since, the Chicago Tribune reports. The solution? A $10-million, three-year plan to draw new shoppers into a 139-year-old institution they may have considered stuffy or overpriced. More »
- Holiday Price Wars Erupt Even Earlier
  
  CNN | Nov 5, 07 9:57 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - No need to wait until the day after Thanksgiving: your Black Friday deal may already be out there waiting. Retailers are launching their assault on shoppers’ wallets even earlier this year, reports CNN Money. “This is probably the earliest that we're seeing the price wars," said consultant George Whalin. Ignited by Wal-Mart price-cutting, retailers from Sears to Penny's to Saks are offering sales of up to 60%. More »
October 2007
- Economic Woes Sink Retail Sales
  
  Bloomberg | Oct 23, 07 6:08 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - With the holiday shopping season set to kick off, retailers are lowering prices on thousands of items to clear space for seasonal products, cutting into profits and producing the worst drop in week-to-week sales since May, Bloomberg reports. US retail sales for the week ending Oct. 20 fell 1.5% from the previous week, said an industry group. More »
- Wal-Mart Cuts Prices to Boost Holiday Sales
  
  Reuters | Oct 18, 07 2:00 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Wal-Mart is slashing prices on 15,000 more items this week in an effort to capture sales during the holiday shopping season, Reuters reported today. The nation's largest retailer reduced prices two weeks ago on popular toys, and has now discounted 20% more items than in the previous holiday season. New discounts go beyond the toy department to home and apparel items. More »
- Tech, Retail Sales Spark Rally
  
  CNN | Oct 12, 07 3:50 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Surging tech stocks and positive economic news that eased recession fears helped fuel the first market rally in three days today, with the S&P 500 capping its fifth straight week of gains to close at 1,561.80, up 7.39. The Dow added 77.96 to close at 14,093.08, and the Nasdaq climbed a whopping 33.48, or 1.21%, to wrap up at 2,805.68. More »
- Retail Sales Ease Recession Worries
  
  Bloomberg | Oct 12, 07 11:06 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Retail sales rose significantly more than expected in September. Analysts attribute the surge, announced today, to more jobs and better wages. Coming in the wake of gloomy numbers the big chains released yesterday, it should quiet fears of a recession. "You can't have a recession if consumers are continuing to spend," one economist told Reuters. More »
- Slow Retail Growth Brings Down Prices
  
  New York Times | Oct 12, 07 6:45 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Dismal September sales figures—with just 1.7% growth, the weakest in five years—are prompting the nation's big retail chains to offer big markdowns in the coming weeks. More than a dozen US chains have fallen short of their third-quarter sales forecasts, reports the New York Times, and all that unsold merchandise is taking up valuable holiday-shopping shelf space. More »
- Online Ad Sales Rocket Upward
  
  CNET | Oct 4, 07 3:28 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Despite concerns that the mortgage crisis would hurt online advertising sales, the industry is doing better than ever, with second quarter sales up 25% from last year to $5.1 billion, according to a new report. The first quarter saw $4.9 billion, and the $10 billion total for the first half of this year is a 26% increase from 2006, CNET reports. More »
- Wal-Mart Era Reaching Its End
  
  Wall Street Journal | Oct 3, 07 8:27 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Wal-Mart may be king, but its throne is shrinking: A judge awarded $62.3 million to underpaid workers today, yet another blow to the mega-seller. Big-name brands like PepsiCo are opting for companies like Whole Foods, as rivals lure American buyers and the Internet dwarfs Wal-Mart's 142,000-item stock, reports the Wall Street Journal . More »
September 2007
- Wal-Mart Expands $4 Drug Program
  
  St. Petersburg Times | Sep 28, 07 2:29 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A year after launching its $4 prescription drug program, Wal-Mart yesterday added 24 names to its list of 361 generic medications. The company boasts that it now covers more than 95% of treatable common diseases, the St Petersburg Times reports, but critics call the program a publicity stunt and say Wal-Mart is using it as a loss leader. More »
- August Retail Sales Fail to Meet Forecasts
  
  Bloomberg | Sep 14, 07 10:47 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Retail sales were up last month, but the .3% rise failed to meet expectations, and if automobile sales are excluded, sales actually fell by .4%—the steepest drop in a year. The August sales figures provide more fodder for an interest-rate cut when the Fed meets next week. “The consumer is pulling back a bit,” one analyst tells Bloomberg. More »
- Credit Crunch Doesn't Dampen Retail Numbers
  
  MarketWatch | Sep 6, 07 3:09 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Better-than-expected retail sales figures for August, which built on healthy back-to-school and luxury shopping, raised hopes today that turbulent markets won't take too big of a bite out of holiday-season sales. Wal-Mart and Target made out well, as did luxury emporiums such as Saks. "It bodes well for Christmas," one analyst tells MarketWatch. More »