Walgreen Co. said Friday its same-store sales rose 3.2 percent in November, beating analysts’ estimates of 2.7 percent. Get the full story »
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Snuggie may have competition from Wis. business
Dave Hibler, left, and Tyler Galganski work out of Hibler's parents basement in Brookfield, Wis., selling adult fleece onesies. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger)
Two Wisconsin couch potatoes hope to wedge their way onto the Snuggie’s sofa with a line of comfort wear called the “adult onesie.”
Tyler Galganski and Dave Hibler are selling fleece, footless onesies with hoods called the “Forever Lazy” out of Hibler’s parents’ basement in Brookfield.
BusinessWeek’s website has called them some of “American’s Best Young Entrepreneurs.” They’ve also been on in “In Touch Weekly” magazine as “Fergie’s favorite way to cover up” after the singer ordered more than 20 for Christmas gifts. Get the full story »
Retailers reporting strong November sales
Generous discounts lured American to stores for holiday gifts in November, providing cheer and robust sales gains for retailers. That raises hopes, already buoyed by reports of crowded malls, for a strong holiday shopping season.
As retailers report their monthly results Thursday, it showed that many different types of shoppers were in the mood to buy, from the affluent to teens. Stores reporting gains that topped Wall Street expectations included Costco Wholesale Corp., Target Corp., the owner of Victoria’s Secret and teen retailer Abercrombie & Fitch.
Wall Street wants more on Starbucks’ grocery plan
Starbucks is prepared to make acquisitions to help accelerate sales of bagged coffee and other consumer products beyond its cafes, Chief Executive Howard Schultz told investors on Wednesday.
The brass at Starbucks Corp says the consumer packaged goods business should grow faster than the company’s retail cafes, which total 17,000 globally.
But Wall Street wants specifics on how it will accomplish that goal, particularly as it works through a messy break-up with Kraft Foods Inc, which has handled sales of Starbucks packaged coffee and tea in supermarkets and club stores since 1998. Speaking at the company’s investor meeting in New York, Schultz said the Seattle-based coffee giant was prepared to buy small and large companies that would help expand its selection of consumer products. Starbucks shares rose 3.3 percent in morning trading. Get the full story »
Cyber Monday sales top $1B for first time
Americans jumped on deals and promotions offered online on Cyber Monday, spending $1 billion and making it the busiest online shopping day ever, according to new data. Get the full story »
Google ready to launch e-books venture
Google Inc. is in the final stages of launching its long-awaited e-book retailing venture, Google Editions, a move that could shake up the way digital books are sold.
The long-delayed venture — Google executives had said they hoped to launch this summer — recently has cleared several technical and legal hurdles, people close to the company say. It is set to debut in the U.S. by the end of the month and internationally in the first quarter of next year, said Scott Dougall, a Google product management director. Get the full story »
Cyber Monday online sales surge 20%
Online sales on Cyber Monday surged nearly 20 percent from last year, according to findings from an analytics group released Tuesday.
“Cyber Monday came in as the biggest shopping day of the year so far,” said John Squire, chief strategy officer of Coremetrics, a unit of IBM Corp.
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Ancestry.com, Sears partner to archive catalogs
Curious about what the popular clothing items were back in Sears’ 1905 catalog, or how gadgets have changed over the past century. Well, Hoffman Estates-based Sears has partnered with Ancestry.com to archive the retailer’s fall and spring season catalogs from 1896 to 1993.
Starbucks aims for average Joe with Seattle’s Best
A product image provided by Starbucks showing the company's new line of Seattle's Best Coffee. (AP Photo/Starbucks Corp.)
Starbucks Corp. wants to appeal a bit more to the average Joe.
This week, the company will roll out a new line of its Seattle’s Best Coffee to be sold at grocery stores and other retailers. It has a lighter taste and simpler selling approach that it hopes will attract coffee drinkers that Starbucks may have left behind.
The coffee giant acquired Seattle’s Best about seven years ago. Until recently, has let the brand sit quietly on the sidelines. But as competition for coffee drinkers has increased, Starbucks is looking to it for growth. Get the full story »
Black Friday foot traffic up, spending flat
The first major shopping weekend of the holiday season drew more crowds to stores than a year ago, even as spending remained flat, a sign that consumers are in the mood to shop when the price is right.
Foot traffic at U.S. malls and retail outlets rose 2.8 percent for the three days following Thanksgiving, compared with the same period last year, according to ShopperTrak, a Chicago-based research firm. Retail sales remained unchanged from the same period a year ago at $20.49 billion.
Get the full story »
Cyber Monday shopping ramps up
Online shoppers turned out in force on Cyber Monday — the day after a strong holiday shopping weekend — with a retail group predicting a 10 percent increase over last year.
Merchant Web sites drew 1,333,336 global page visits per minute during the noon ET hour, according to e-commerce tracking company Akamai. While that was a solid number, it was actually a little below the noontime peak of 1,337,601 page visits per minute globally three days earlier, on Black Friday, which is supposed to be the big day for traditional stores.
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Retailers are counting on Cyber Monday
A worker at online retailer Zappos. (Isaac Brekken/Los Angeles Times)
U.S. retailers who saw strong online sales as the holiday selling season kicked off over the weekend aim to cash in further on that momentum with Cyber Monday, one of the biggest days for Web commerce.
The term Cyber Monday was coined five years ago for the day many people return to work after U.S. Thanksgiving Day and make online gift purchases on their computers.
More recently, retailers have been increasingly offering online deals on Thanksgiving itself and through the holiday weekend, as consumers regularly shop on the Internet. Get the full story »
Comcast Internet blackout in Boston, DC
An internet service outage for some Comcast customers on the East Coast eased early Monday, the company said. Get the full story »
Shareholder sues to block J. Crew buyout
Bloomberg News | A J. Crew shareholder has sued the retailer and TPG Capital over a $3 billion plan to take the clothier private.
Early indications show strong Cyber Monday
As online sellers kick off the coming week with one of their biggest sales days of the year — Cyber Monday — its brick-and-mortar counterpart — Black Friday — offers some encouraging signs: Consumer are shopping more enthusiastically in stores and online before the big days. Get the full story »
