Mark Brodie/KJZZ Phoenix—If you’re listening to this while on the way to or home from the mall, there is a pretty good chance you’re not alone. Black Friday has traditionally been the kickoff for the holiday shopping season, but Valley-based retail analyst Jeff Green said there are a few things working against that this year.
Archives for 2013
Maximizing Success: Real estate’s role in portfolio optimization
Michael Fickes/Chain Store Age—Real estate plays a key role in optimizing retail store portfolios. Stores must have enough square footage but never too much. Portfolios must also match the number of stores across regions to customer demand. “Portfolio optimization means reducing or adding store square footage and matching merchandising and inventory to customer demand in […]
Lists handy, shoppers gird for holiday hunt
Justine Griffin/Sarasota Herald Tribune—With Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and three weeks of shopping from now to Christmas, shoppers have more options than ever to get all the gifts on their holiday lists. Southwest Florida moms Melissa Tomasso and Beth McCullagh are two of the 140 million people expected to shop during the […]
Seasoned shoppers attack Black Friday, with gusto
Steve Levin/The Bakersfield Californian—Marlo Escamilla spent less than 20 minutes shopping Thanksgiving morning, enough time at Valley Plaza’s Old Navy store to get her son’s Christmas gift of — spoiler alert — clothes. As the city’s only major retailer open Thursday morning aside from Wal-Mart Stores, which have been open on Thanksgiving for 25 years, […]
Black Friday’s surprise hit: A 29-cent washcloth
Catey Hill/MarketWatch—Most consumers went into Walmart (NYSE:WMT) yesterday hoping to score doorbusters on things like televisions, tablets, bikes and toys. But the retailer has a not-so-dirty little secret: its customers — who risked punches, shoving and stampedes — bought more towels than tablets on Gray Thursday. Yesterday, Walmart stores opened at 6 p.m. and processed […]
Early Black Friday: Never-never land for shoppers?
Kelli Grant/CNBC—Just a few years ago, 5 a.m. was the magic hour for Black Friday, when shoppers crowded into just-opened stores for doorbuster deals. Now, it’s often a ghost town. The Target in Hackensack, N.J., was quiet at that time, with no music playing and only a handful of shoppers wandering the aisles. Most of […]
