the grinch

Bah humbug. Black Friday jumped the shark sometime around the turn of the century. Nonetheless, a disproportionate amount of retail and media focus continue to emphasize Black Friday’s importance as an event. While declining over several years, this year got markedly worse, to the point where media reports were forced to highlight the “normality” of…

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sears

Sears Holdings pre-reported Q4 results which showed a rapid deterioration yesterday. The most alarming item in the press release was the rapid deterioration in sales trends at both Sears and Kmart. Sears comparable store sales trends ran -3.3% in the YTD period (which is a month away from the full year) while the trends through…

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macy

It was particularly impressive that sales in August were not only strong for retailers that sell lots of food and consumer products (which benefited from the buying panic pre-Irene) but that they were broadly strong. While the food and broadline retailers should have benefited from some buying “pull-forward” before the storm, other retailers such as…

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