retailers posts
FeedPosted Nov 8th 2009 2:10PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Competitive strategy, Wal-Mart (WMT), Amazon.com (AMZN), Target Corp. (TGT)
Santa hasn't even been tugged down Central Park West yet, and Wal-Mart (WMT) is already slashing its prices. The market among major retailers is intensifying, with many offering products as loss leaders in order to entice customers into the store (physical or otherwise) and boost their basket sizes. Along with Target (TGT) and Amazon (AMZN), Walmart is slashing DVD prices, the same tactic it's using with books.
Retailers are rushing to undercut each other this year, which is causing prices to spiral down quickly. When Walmart announced reduced prices on several titles to $10, Amazon followed at $9.99, with Walmart stepping back in at $9.98.
Continue reading Walmart, Amazon now slash DVD prices: What's next?
Posted Nov 6th 2009 11:40AM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Target Corp. (TGT), Costco Wholesale (COST), Gap Inc (GPS), Nordstrom, Inc (JWN)
There's a chill in the air and a slight up-tick in confidence. Holiday discounts are coming a bit earlier, too. For retailers, this has been a great combination, leading to the second consecutive month in which retail sales increased.
This follows more than a year of drops. Consumers aren't going crazy, but they are loosening their wallets a little bit. Consumer spending accounts for 70% of the U.S. economy, and the coming holiday season is where the action is -- for the retail sector and, consequently, for everyone else.
Continue reading Retail sales: Signs of life, but not yet a rising tide
Posted Nov 2nd 2009 1:20PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Internet, Competitive strategy, Dell (DELL), Starbucks (SBUX), Marketing and advertising, Next big thing, Target Corp. (TGT), Best Buy (BBY)
Once upon a time, retailers measured success by the number of people walking by in the mall, how many entered the store, the percentage they spent, and basket size. Now, a world of zeroes and ones has changed their perspective entirely. Social media is expected to be the star during the coming holiday season, with retailers pushing Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter content to get in front of consumers and affect either online or in-store purchases. Smaller Christmas budgets are expected, so the fight is on to garner as large a share as possible of a shrinking pie.
Of course, nobody would come out and say, "Social media is nonsense, and I'm not getting anything for my investment." So, when the likes of Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), JCPenney (NYSE: JCP), and Target (NYSE: TGT) say that social media is connecting them with their customers and leading to more effective campaigns and product launches, do take it with a grain of salt. What can't be ignored, however, is that they're committing more resources to social media marketing, even though it's still far too soon to tell if it will be effective.
Continue reading Retailers push social media, want bigger wallet share for Christmas
Posted Oct 30th 2009 1:00PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Competitive strategy, Wal-Mart (WMT), Amazon.com (AMZN), Target Corp. (TGT), Books
Small book retailers were buying in bulk from major online booksellers because they could really save some money. One was buying up to 70 copies of a particular title -- it was $5 less a pop from the big guys than it would have been from the publisher. Finally, however, the big retailers have become wise to the trend and taken action, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).
Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), and Target (NYSE: TGT) have decided to cap the number of books customers can buy online, a measure intended to prevent smaller competitors from treating them as partners. Walmart is limiting customers to two copies of a particular book, with Amazon placing the border at three and Target at five.
Continue reading Major booksellers didn't realize they were suppliers to rivals
Posted Oct 13th 2009 5:45PM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: Major movement, Cisco Systems (CSCO), eBay (EBAY), Market matters, Halliburton (HAL), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Goldcorp Inc (GG), Commodities, S and P 500, DJIA, NASDAQ

We had a lot of big names trading up to new 52 week highs again today. The overall markets were pretty flat, with the DOW closing the day down 0.14%, the NASDAQ closing the day's trading up 0.04%, and the S&P ending the day a bit lower to finish today's trading down 0.28%.
Here are a few of the names that moved higher during the day to set new 52 week highs.
Continue reading Some big names setting new highs today: STAR, GG, PIR, EBAY
Posted Oct 9th 2009 4:20PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Target Corp. (TGT), Kohl's Corp (KSS), Economic data, Limited Brands (LTD)
Consumers are finally spending more, with September posting the first gain in more than a year. The International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) found that retail sales inched 0.1% higher last month. It doesn't seem like much, but a gain when you anticipate a fall is good news magnified. But, it came at the expense of great deals and other tools to entice somewhat hesitant customers into stores.
Kohl's (NYSE: KSS) and Limited Brands (NYSE: LTD) reported sales increases in September for stores open more than a year. J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP), Macy's (NYSE: M) and Target (NYSE: TGT) posted declines, but they were better than expected. Delayed school openings thanks to a late Labor Day helped push to September sales that might have occurred in August otherwise.
Of course, all eyes are on the coming holiday season. The National Retail Federation forecasts U.S. consumer spending of $437.6 billion – up only slightly from $433.7 billion four years ago. So, we still have a lot of ground to make up before we can celebrate a recovery. As long as the situation is staying steady, though, we'll at least have a solid starting point.
Posted Oct 7th 2009 2:40PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Target Corp. (TGT), MasterCard Inc'A' (MA)
MasterCard Advisors (NYSE: MA) service SpendingPulse says luxury and electronics sales headed upward last month, in a pleasant deviation from what became the norm all too long ago. A few other product categories posted gains as well – showing stability, if not a recovery. But, at this stage of the game, we'll take what we can get, right?
Luxury sales, not including jewelry, gained 3.4% year-over-year – that's an increase of $891 million. Last September, luxury goods suffered a 9.4% decline. Yet, this category is still below its September 2005 level of $94 million. Jewelry sales gained 1.2% relative to last year, compared to a year-over-year decline of 5.8% a year ago. Compared to apparel sales, this is a profound turn. In September 2008, the clothing category was off 5.7%, and this September, it was down only 2.9%.
Continue reading Luxury spending on the rise
Posted Oct 1st 2009 3:00PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Management, Industry, Employees, Indices, Economic data, Headline news, Recession
Layoff announcements hit their lowest level since March 2008 last month, signaling market stabilization. Global outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. put the number of cuts at 66,404 for September, a 13% decline from July's 76,456. Year-over-year, the number of layoffs announced is down 30%, and September was the fourth month in a row in which job cuts fell relative to the same month a year earlier.
Planned job cuts reached 240,233 for the third quarter of 2009, according to Challenger, its lowest level since the first quarter of 2008, when there were 200,656 planned layoffs. For the third quarter of this year, job cuts fell 24.5% from the previous quarter's 318,165, and it's off 16.3% from 287,142 in the third quarter of 2009. At the beginning of 2009, the planned layoff rate reached a seven-year high of 578,510. Since then, the planned layoff rate fell 58.5%.
Continue reading Fewer job cuts in September, is relief coming?
Posted Sep 29th 2009 3:40PM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: Forecasts, Bad news, Consumer experience, Recession, Financial Crisis

As we continue to question whether or not America is emerging from the recession, one indicator that a lot of people are paying attention to is consumer confidence. Unfortunately,
consumer confidence fell unexpectedly this month, as more and more people are worried about their jobs.
According to the New York-based Conference Board, its consumer confidence index dipped to 53.1 in September, down from 54.5 in August.
The dip ends a three month streak, and is being blamed mostly on Americans concerns over job security. The drop raises concerns over any economic rebound, and comes at a bad time for retailers that are gearing up for the upcoming holiday season.
Continue reading Consumer confidence drops unexpectedly
Posted Aug 17th 2009 10:00AM by Mark Fightmaster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Wal-Mart (WMT)
This morning, Rochdale upgraded Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), raising the retail giant to Buy from Hold. The brokerage also upped its price target on the retailer to $65 per share from $55. Rochdale stated that the retailer has a "favorable blend of defensive qualities," including consumers trading down, the company's focus on low costs, cyclical upside from more discretionary general merchandise and international exposure.
Fundamentally, WMT is in a good position thanks to its combination of merchandise and price. However, the company's technical performance suggests that Rochdale may be a little late to the dance. On a weekly basis, WMT has set a descending pattern of lower highs dating back to late last year. This pattern suggests technical weakness, and we could see the pattern continue this week. If WMT can not capitalize on last week's momentum, the shares could confirm this pattern.
Continue reading Walmart gets upgraded to Buy
Next Page >