More shoppers are in stores these days, but they're also spending more carefully. That's not necessarily bad news for the holiday season. It's just that retailers have accepted they'll have to work hard this year to keep registers ringing.
In a sign that holiday sales season will be better than initially expected, business inventories rose 0.9% in September as companies re-stocked their shelves for the nation's busiest shopping period. The increase also suggests that third-quarter U.S. GDP growth figures may be revised upward.
U.S. wholesale inventories rose 1.5% in September, and when combined with a more-optimistic outlook by U.S. CEOs, the data suggest suppliers and businesses expect slightly better holiday sales this year than in 2009.
Amazon has positions to fill in three fulfillment centers in two states. It's joining other retailers such as Toys 'R' Us and Kohl's is adding scads of temporary hires for 2010 holiday sales crunch -- the most since 2007.
Apple jacked up the number of full-time employees working in its retail division by 61% to 26,500 in its fiscal year that just closed. The move came as Apple rolled out its new addition to the i-line -- the iPad -- and retooled its iPhone with video chat, which helped to drive sales in the stores.
Apple has postponed the release of its white iPhone again -- now until Spring 2011. But with 14 million black iPhones shipped last quarter, the delay doesn't seem to be hurting sales.
Online sales during the holiday season are likely to exceed their 2009 levels as shoppers shift away from shopping at some brick-and-mortar operations such as electronics and warehouse stores, said market research firm The NPD Group in a report Wednesday.
Apple is kicking off iPad sales at AT&T stores Thursday, a move that took a surprisingly long time given that Apple has already allowed other major retailers to offer the popular tablet computer for months.
For retailers, this Christmas season is expected to be brighter than last year, even as continuing economic anxiety puts a damper on spending. Clothes, toys and video games are expected to do well in 2010.
Retailer Kohl's said on Wednesday that it plans to hire 40,000 temporary workers during this year's holiday season at stores, distribution centers and credit operations nationwide -- 7,000 more than last year. The shopping season this year has been forecast to be stronger than it was in 2009.
Borders, the nation's second-largest book retailer, is trying a new tactic to gain a much-needed sales boost heading into the end of year shopping season: It's opening 25 "pop-up" shops meant to last only for the holidays, the company announced Tuesday.
With the holidays behind us, and customers redeeming their gift cards, big-box bookstores are taking stock of how they fared, compared with the overall positive holiday retail sales picture. Things were bad for Barnes & Noble big-box and Books-a-Million midsize stores.
