- Mark Levin Signs Multi-year Deal with ABC, Expands Show to 3 Hours
- Consumerist.com Adopted by Old-School Consumers Union, Stops Selling Ads
- For Auto Industry, 2009 Holds Even Tighter Ad Budgets
- User-Generated Magazine Publisher 8020 Media Shuts Doors
- Out-of-Home, Fueled by Digital, to Weather Recession Well
- Clear Channel Swaps Cincy Stations for Five in Green Bay
- Consumers Swarm to Discounters for Grocery Items, Don’t Switch Back
- Wikimedia Raises $6.2M to Keep Wikipedia Afloat
- Conde Nast’s Jan. Ad Pages Slip More than Most
- Aegis Faces Possible Sale or Spin-off of Non-core Businesses
- Top US Cities for Charitable Givers, by Category
- Online Fitness, Video Game Spending Outperforms Brick-And-Mortar
- RIM Must Fix Glitches, Boost Satisfaction To Hold Off iPhone
- LCD TV Revenue to Fall YoY for First Time Ever
- Top 10 Broadcast Media Websites - November 2008
- Top 10 Entertainment Online Advertisers by Image-Based Impressions - November 2008
- Top 10 Sports Websites - November 2008
- Eight in 10 Online Holiday Shoppers Read Web Reviews
- Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index: Merry Outlook for Some, but Not Others
- Firefox Share Tops 20% in November
Department Stores
Retailers Beware: Worst Is Yet to Come, but Hope on Horizon
Retailers that survived the 2008 holiday season shouldn’t pin their hopes on the new year, as retail sales will remain weak throughout 2009 and won’t rebound until 2010, TNS Retail Forward forecasts.
For 2009, sales growth for the year (excluding automobiles and gasoline) is forecast to approach 2% compared with the 2.3% average growth for 2008 through November, based on data reported by the US...
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Department Stores’ Decline Due to Changes in Consumers’ Shopping Habits
Consumers this year continued a six-year trend of steering away from department stores during the holiday season, but the uncertain economic times were not the only reason.
Department stores are not meeting consumer needs, such as having desired items in stock, fair everyday pricing, easy return policies, and helpful employees, according to (pdf) the Ninth Annual National Shopping Behavior...
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Post-Christmas Sales Proliferate
Major retailers are offering post-Christmas, yearend, and clearance sales to lure shoppers back into stores during what has so far been a dismal retail season that has left retailers with bulging inventories they need to clear to make room for spring inventory, writes US News & World Report.
This year’s shorter holiday-shopping season—27 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, compared with 32...
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Wal-Mart Only Retail Winner in Bleak Christmas Shopping Season
Wal-Mart is the only real retail winner during the 2008 holiday shopping season, which is presaging more retail bankruptcies in the year ahead, according to C. Britt Beemer, CEO of America’s Research Group (ARG), who issued his 2008 “Winners and Losers” list of retailers.
The “Winners and Losers” (complete list below) are determined by how well they did in retaining Christmas customers from...
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Wal-Mart Announces Tender Offer for Chile’s D&S
Wal-Mart Stores will launch a tender offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares and American Depositary Shares of Distribución y Servicio D&S SA, Wal-Mart said in a statement.
The tender offer price is denominated at $0.408 per common share—a premium of approximately 37.4% over the average closing price for the prior 30 trading days.
D&S, Chile’s largest grocer, has a market...
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Downturn in Sales for Sports Apparel and Footwear
Economic challenges are taking a toll on sales of athletic footwear and apparel, according to the NPD Group.
In the European Big Five market (UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain), during the quarter ended September 2008 value sales declined 8% on apparel and 5% on footwear, the firm reported.
Downturns were softer in the US, where athletic footwear was down 1.5% and the active-apparel market...
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Macy’s Stores to Stay Open 24 Hours
Thirteen Macy’s stores will be open 24 hours a day through Christmas Eve, including stores in Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and Illinois, reports the Chicago Tribune.
The retailer first tested the open-all-night store concept in 2006 in Queens, NY, and last year undertook several such efforts, expanding it further this year.
Just 15% of shoppers had completed their...
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Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy Have ‘Best’ Holiday Ads; Emotional Ads Resonate
Asked which retailer has the best holiday TV commercial, consumers ranked Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Macy’s, and Kohl’s as favorites, according to a survey conducted for the NRF’s Retail Advertising and Marketing Association by BIGresearch.
Other retailers on the top 10 list include Sears, Kmart, JCPenney, Old Navy, and Toys “R” Us.
Well-known celebrities, “True Story” campaigns, children’s...
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NY Requires Large Retail Stores to Recycle Plastic Bags
New York Governor David Paterson signed legislation over the weekend that will require larger retail stores to recycle plastic carry-out bags or face fines from the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Business Review reports (via Environmental Leader).
The new law will take effect on Jan. 1, 2009 and applies to stores that have more than 10,000 square feet of space, or are chains...
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‘Capitalist Department Stores’ in France Target of ‘Afghan Revolutionary Front’
The renowned Printemps department store in the French capital was evacuated today after bomb threats were received, CNN reports. Five sticks of dynamite were apparently discovered inside the store, which is usually packed with shoppers this time of year.
A letter sent to Agence France Presse, ostensibly by a group calling itself “Front Revolutionaires Afghan” (Afghan Revolutionary Front), warned...
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