- 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
Malls & Shopping Centers
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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‘Super Saturday’ Foot Traffic Falls 17.0%, but Retail Sales Rise 0.5%
US foot traffic for the last Saturday before Christmas (12/20), or Super Saturday, fell a whopping 17.0% from Super Saturday 2007, ShopperTrak’s retail traffic index (SRTI) reported.
However, the company’s retail sales estimate (NRSE) reported a 0.5% increase for the same period, totaling $8.75 billion.
Retail traffic showed a significant decline for this critical holiday shopping period as the...
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Short Shopping Season, Winter Weather Result in Deep Discounts
When times are tougher—and the holiday-shopping season (five days) shorter—than usual, retailers are resorting to staying open later, even for 24 hours a day, and dropping prices to post-Christmas levels.
The Toys “R” Us flagship store in NY, along with Macy’s, H&M, L.L. Bean, Wal-Mart Stores, and others have been open day and night or otherwise extended their hours to capture as many shoppers...
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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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Mall Owners Seek to Escape Debt
It was a bad day for mall owners: On Monday, Developers Diversified Realty Corp.—owner and manager of more than 700 shopping centers—failed to seal a deal that would sell 13 assets to an institutional investor for $890 million, Reuters reports.
Also on Monday, General Growth Properties announced that it had not yet reached an agreement to further extend the maturity date on $900 million of...
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No Buyer, So Woolworths Begins Closing Down
Woolworths, the British general store that has been around for more than a century, is the latest victim of the consumer-spending slump that has pushed UK retailers like Ilva Furniture and MK One out of business, writes Bloomberg.
The 815-store chain had a four-year run of unprofitability due to competition from supermarkets and online retailers and was seeking a buyer to save the collapse of...
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Malls Cause Frustration, Boredom for Shoppers
More than 80% of shoppers say they had at least one problem during their last visit to a mall, and four-fifths of those problems were related to mall diversity and “excitement,” according to a study by the Baker Retailing Initiative at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Verde Group, Marketing Charts writes.
Overall, shoppers experienced an average of three problems...
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Kohl’s, Forever 21 Snap Up Mervyn’s Stores in Open Auction
On Thursday Mervyn’s auctioned off its US store leases. Kohl’s and Forever 21 prevailed, jointly acquiring 46 locations for about $6.25 million.
Upon approval from the court overseeing Mervyn’s bankruptcy proceedings, which began in July, Kohl’s will take control of 31 of the locations and Forever 21 will assume 15 of them.
Forever 21, a youth-lifestyle retailer, was reportedly set to bid on...
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Brighton Awarded $6.7 Million in Case against Coldwater Creek
Brighton Collectibles has been awarded $6.7 million by a US District Court jury in San Diego, California, which found that the Idaho-based national chain Coldwater Creek had infringed on Brighton’s intellectual property rights.
In making the award, the jury found infringement of both Brighton’s Carolina Heart design copyright and its trade dress, known as the “Brighton Look.”
Coldwater Creek...
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Weak Mall Traffic Impacts Claire’s Bottom Line
Claire’s, a seller of low-priced jewelry and accessories—and a fixture in many US shopping malls—reported (pdf) net sales of $333.0 million for 3Q08, a 6.8% decrease from the same period last year.
Though the average sales per transaction went up 6.2% due to an increase in average ticket prices, average transaction per store fell 11.2%; consolidated same-store sales declined 6.3%...
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