BAD The more data that becomes available on the holiday retail season, the worse it looks. New Gallup data shows that “Consumers’ self-reported daily spending in stores, restaurants, gas stations, and online averaged $63…
Walmart.com (NYSE:WMT) began to offer free shipping today on many items such as electronics, toys and jewelry. Most of the products in the program are not available in stores. The gambit is clearly meant…
The stock market may be challenging 2-year highs, but not Dean Foods Company (NYSE: DF). Dean Foods is hitting 52-week lows if the pre-market activity remains at current levels. The company reported that profits…
The Fresh Market Inc. (NASDAQ: TFM) just became a challenger to this week’s review of the top 7 IPO’s of 2010. The company priced its initial public offering of 13,175,000 shares of common stock…
Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) is managing to do what many probably thought was not possible. It isn’t a shock that Starbucks beat earnings and raised guidance. The surprise is that the stock is running…
Retailers are out with October sales reports and the news is mixed. Perhaps the biggest surprise was teen clothing store Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ:ZUMZ), which saw same-store sales soar 21.5% in the month. That’s nearly…
Consumer spending remained in deep trouble in October. Gallup reports that “Americans’ self-reported spending in stores, restaurants, gas stations, and online averaged $62 per day during the first four weeks of October. That figure…
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) started a digital movie download service with Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NASDAQ:HPQ) in 2007 that lasted for about a year until it was shut down because of lack of consumer interest. Its…
Consumers who might remain unconvinced about an economic recovery still have to eat. And not all of them are eating at fast food restaurants. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) reported a third-quarter sales increase…
E-commerce sales are still below 10% of all retail sales in the US, but the category has posted a better growth rate than bricks-and-mortar revenue for some time. comScore reported that between Black Friday…
Starbucks (NADSAQ: SBUX) will begin to offer new Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) online services as part of its free in-store WiFi plan. It already gives away some content on the network including WSJ.com, which is paid…
The National Retail Federation says that the average consumer will spend $688.87 this holiday season–exactly–up from $681.83 last year. The 1% improvement is not likely to save the sector from another difficult year of…
One of the few bits of investing conventional wisdom that nearly everyone accepts is that people should always look out for number one. The problem with following that advice is investors may miss out…
Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) continues to sell a number of products which contain high lead levels and some of these are toys. The same is true about children’s products sold by Target (NYSE: TGT), according…
Gap (NYSE: GPS), founded in 1969 as a the Woodstock generation left Woodstock for home as the company likes to say, has succumbed to customer pressure to keep its old logo. The clothing company…