ThinkstockWhile early reports on December same-store sales were mixed, the final tally showed a solid gain, with 53% of retailers reporting same-store sales beating estimates and just 47% falling short. The data…
ThinkstockRetailers are announcing December same-store sales figures today and, to tell the truth, expectations are pretty low. Research firm Retail Metrics projects an overall gain of just 1.9% year-over-year, sharply lower than…
ThinkstockRetailers do not appear to be headed for uniformly upbeat sales increases in December. Research firm Retail Metrics has dropped its forecast for a same-store sales increase by another 10 basis points…
ThinkstockThe holiday shopping season got off to a fast start, but concluded with a whimper and not the anticipated bang. It appears that the booming start pulled sales forward and retailers didn’t…
courtesy of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.What happened to bricks-and-mortar and e-commerce sales this holiday season? If Wall St.’s opinion has validity, online operations did well and old-school stores did not. The price of Wal-Mart…
No matter how sad the forecast, the year’s results for a few large America companies, the conditions of competition in their markets and the malaise that has draped much of economy makes…
Several retailers are announcing November same-store sales today, and the reports are generally good. Research firm Retail Metrics projects an overall gain of 3.5% for the month, excluding the impact of drug…
courtesy Best Buy Co. Inc.Holiday retailers fall into at least two groups so far this year. One group includes companies that face low expectations. Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) and JCPenney…
courtesy Best Buy Co. Inc.The fog of war has enveloped estimates of retail activity over the Thanksgiving/Black Friday weekend. That does not matter much; only the numbers for the entire period from…
Wikimedia CommonsOnce a month, research firm Comscore releases a list of the 50 largest websites in the United States by traffic. Month after month, even year after year, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)…
ThinkstockThe gap between rich and poor is well illustrated by the large multi-billion dollar corporations employing thousands of low-wage workers. With the Great Recession over, not only are many of these companies…
ThinkstockIf you have ever heard of retailers getting more and more desperate to capture your Christmas and holiday spending dollars, 2012 is going to take the cake. Two holidays have generally been considered…
courtesy J.C. Penney Co. Inc.JCPenney Company Inc. (NYSE: JCP) reported third-quarter 2012 results this morning. The retailer posted a net loss of $0.93 per share on revenues of $2.93 billion. In the…
U.S. equity markets opened lower this morning as traders and investors tried to sort out their reactions to the re-election of President Obama. The initial reaction is that the U.S. economy is…
thinkstockAs third quarter earnings results continue to pour in, overall earnings have been decidedly weaker. According to research firm Retail Metrics, the blended S&P 500 earnings growth rate for the third quarter…
