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…
U.S. equity markets opened sharply higher this morning following approval last night from the U.S. House of Representatives of a bill that preserves some tax cuts, eliminates others, and basically kicks the…
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…
ThinkstockNegotiations have failed between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, raising the threat of a longshoreman’s strike against U.S. ports on East and Gulf Coasts. The Alliance represents container…
courtesy Best Buy Co. Inc.Some of the news about holiday sales at deeply troubled retailers Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) and J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) has been better than…
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…
courtesy GameStop Corp.Just as the holiday retail shopping season gets down to its last two weeks, GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) said today that it would begin selling two models of the Kindle…
Wikimedia CommonsThe market has held a number of things against Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) management. Among them are the e-commerce company’s penchant for offering free shipping that damages margins. Another is that…
Nearly half the respondents in a recent study said they would consider getting a mortgage through eBay Inc.’s (NASDAQ: EBAY) PayPal. And one of three would consider a mortgage from Wal-Mart Stores…
Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE: BKS) reported fiscal second-quarter 2013 results before markets opened this morning. The bookstore chain reported a diluted earnings per share (EPS) loss of $0.04 on revenues of…
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…
ThinkstockAs hard as retailers, both online and in the real world, compete for sales over the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, so to do online and research firms compete to see which can…
courtesy of TargetShopping online at Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) stores is quite similar to the shopping experience at the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) website. The first thing on the homepage is…
Wikimedia CommonsResearch firm Comscore announced two pieces of data. The first is that Black Friday e-commerce sales rose about $1 billion for the first time ever — to $1.042 billion. The other…
