Retailers Want You to Shop
Have you thought of buying a new outfit, adding a little spark to your home, or treating yourself in some way? If so, store managers are hoping you don’t chicken out on that purchase. The stock market plunge this year is keeping them awake at night. They are afraid it will spook you and keep you out of stores just when they need you the most. After a demoralizing holiday shopping season, with even giants like Macy’s, Nordstrom and...
Retail 2016’s Hot Trends And Topics
The retail industry is in the final days of a year in which the athleisure trend continued to boom, the off-price category got even hotter and an ever-growing list of restaurants catered to our interest in healthy eating by announcing big changes to their food supply chains. So what are likely to be the hot topics in retail in 2016? We’ve rounded up some expert predictions. 1. Mobile payments will finally take off — with a little help...
Consumer Confidential: You’ve Bought It. Now What About Returning It?
On Black Friday, people’s thoughts turned from a celebration of thankfulness to spending gobs of cash on modestly discounted consumer goods. I’m not here to judge. But I am here to offer some tips on two of the big Rs of the holiday shopping season: rebates and returns. “There’s a lot of variability with how manufacturers and retailers handle this,” said Karl Quist, president of PriceBlink, an online price-comparison tool. “It...
Shaky Retailers Head Into Holidays
For years now, retailers decking their halls for the crucial holiday season have been waiting for shoppers to shed the tentative attitude about spending that became entrenched in the recession. Recent data shows that consumer spending and consumer confidence are on the rise, and forecasters have released relatively upbeat predictions for how sales will grow during the November and December shopping crush. And yet the most recent...
Costco Joins Retailers Saying They Won’t Sell GMO Salmon
Seattle — Costco has joined the list of retailers who say they will not sell genetically modified salmon after the Food and Drug Administration approved on Thursday the sale of such fish. “Although the FDA has approved the sale of GM salmon, Costco has not sold and does not intend to sell GM salmon at this time,” the warehouse store chain based outside Seattle said in a statement Friday. The FDA cleared for sale AquAdvantage Salmon,...
