Aeropostale posted better than expected quarterly results after Wednesday's market close, but any good feelings were stamped out when the trendy apparel retailer offered up problematic guidance for the current quarter.
American consumers are growing more confident about the job market, companies are ordering more equipment and home prices are rising in most major cities. The latest batch of government data suggests that the economy is improving just as the holiday shopping season begins.
The good news is that the election is behind us, so expect political ads to disappear from the airwaves. The bad news is that you can now spend the next six to seven weeks getting thoroughly sick of Christmas advertising.
Airlines have canceled thousands of flights, stranding travelers around the globe. Insurers are bracing for possible damages of $5 billion. Retailers face shrunken sales.
Walmart is testing same-day delivery of televisions, toys and other general merchandise bought online in a few U.S. markets as it tries to find new ways to keep up with competitors and to attract busy shoppers this holiday season.
If you're one of the throngs of shoppers who camp out all night outside the nation's stores before Black Friday in hopes of nabbing a huge deal when the doors swing open, you've been duped.
Toys R Us is the latest retailer planning to ramp up seasonal hiring this holiday. But just-released sales forecasts on the busiest shopping season of the year raise the question: Will all those added store associates be kept busy?
Don't expect crazy markdowns at Target when you shop for gifts this holiday season. The trendy discounter is opting out of the winter price wars, counting instead on its trendy exclusive collections to lure customers. And if that means it loses sales to rivals, that's OK by Target.
Toys R Us is making it easier for shoppers to use its layaway program ahead of the crucial holiday season, waiving its service fee and minimum purchase requirement beginning Tuesday.
June's tepid retail sales numbers are already casting a pall over the industry's outlook for autumn -- and they may bode ill for the winter, too.
Retail sales inched up by just 0.1% in December, but the gain was enough to lift sales to a record level for 2011. It marked the largest annual increase in more than a decade, and confirms that the economy was strengthening as the year ended.
The holiday shopping season is wrapping up to be bigger than anyone expected. Now, retailers are holding their breath and hoping consumers will keep spending in the final days before Christmas.
U.S. shoppers spent 15 percent more in online holiday buying compared to last year, after what may have been the busiest week of the season, said research firm comScore on Sunday. Shoppers have spent $30.9 billion online from Nov. 1 through Dec. 16, up from $26.9 billion at the same point last year, said the Reston, Va., company, which tracks Web use.
Buy Nothing Christmas and groups like it are on a mission to recast the holidays so that they're richer in meaning, smaller in environmental impact and greater in giving to people less privileged. They also aim to expose the downside of an economy largely reliant on consumer purchases. It's an idea whose time has come.
With the final Christmas countdown begun, the National Retail Federation has upgraded its holiday sales forecast, reflecting growing optimism that much more spending is to come. The NRF now expects holiday sales to rise 3.8% to a record $469.1 billion. That's up from its more modest 2.8 percent forecast made in early October, though it's hardly stellar.
Americans say they feel worse about the economy than they have since the depths of the Great Recession. And it's a bad time for a bad mood because households are starting to make their holiday budgets. It might not be all doom and gloom, though. Sometimes what people say about the economy and how they behave are two different things.
Recession-scarred shoppers are tired of cutting back, and they're ready to give in to their pent up spending impulses, experts say. So after a few years of austerity, this holiday season, many people are going to be splurging a bit more on presents for themselves.
The holiday shopping season is looking pretty bleak for retailers. Best Buy recently announced that it plans to hire fewer holiday workers than it did last year, and now new data from the consumer research group NPD suggests that Best Buy won't be the only chain stuck in a holiday sales rut.
It's hard not to sound like the Grinch these days: As we head into the holiday season, unemployment remains painfully high, and August 2011 saw a 47% increase in layoffs compared to last year, with no growth in hiring. Poverty stats are equally dismal, with the cost of living rising. Here's how retailers are responding.
So far this holiday season, U.S. online retail spending is up 12% from a year ago. More people took to the Internet last weekend to finish up their last-minute shopping, according to a ComScore report.
The biggest shopping season is off to an even better-than-expected start. New government figures show November sales rose 0.8% from October and 7.7% from November 2009, supporting retailers' recent view that the recession is finally losing its hold on shoppers.
Retailers and shipping companies are adding fewer new jobs than they did a year ago. One reason: employers began shopping for seasonal workers earlier than usual, boosting hiring in October. But if holiday retail sales hold up, it could equal more hiring in December.
Overspending can kill the Christmas spirit and ruin your finances for months. Writer Zoe FitzGerald Carter used the poor economy to cure herself of the destructive habit. Here's how she learned to create more Christmas magic for her family by spending less.
Rising retail sales are adding to the list of positive economic developments as 2010 winds down. But how important are holiday sales in the larger scheme of things? Investors may be giving too much credit to what turns out to be a tiny sliver of U.S. GDP.
It looks like online retailers had a good Cyber Monday: Early estimates indicate sales could have surpassed last year's numbers by 12.7% or more. But unlike Black Friday, Cyber Monday rarely has been the most important shopping day of the year for e-tailers.
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. consumer spending grew about 7% in October from September, but remained down 5% from the same month last year, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday. The figures could indicate more financial comfort heading into the all-important holiday shopping season.
ComScore reports online retail spending rose 9% year-over-year in the third quarter. Such positive growth -- the fourth straight quarter of increasing cyberspending -- going into the fourth quarter could bode well for the upcoming holiday shopping season.
