Yesterday, Target became the latest retailer to report weak earnings and shrinking physical store sales. They certainly won’t be the last. As more leading retail brands disappoint on both the top and bottom lines–and announce scores of store closings–analysts and investors may conclude that brick-and-mortar retail is going they way of the horse-drawn carriage.
Category Archives: RETAIL
It’s a tough time to be a retailer in the U.S. And in a recent report, analysts at S&P Global Ratings said that 2017 could be a “tipping point” for the struggling industry as financial outlooks — particularly for apparel retailers — grow increasingly bleak.
Target announced plans Tuesday to cut prices while hanging on to aspects of the “Tar-zhay” image that’s endeared it to customers. The retailer has made good progress rolling out new brands, tailoring stores to local markets and improving Target’s ability to cater to customers shopping both online and in stores, but it’s clear from their results that wasn’t enough, CEO Brian Cornell said.
The U.S. economy expanded at a slower pace in the fourth quarter, as previously reported, and appeared to remain on a moderate growth path as President Donald Trump took office with a promise to reinvigorate manufacturing and protect jobs.
Walmart and Target try to win customer loyalty based on an “everyday low price” business model. And now it looks like the prices from both retailers are going even lower. Walmart sells more groceries than any other supermarket in America, and the company is pushing a broad price-cutting initiative to ensure it stays on top of the competition.
US business inventories are rising amid signs freight is flowing more freely through supply chains, rather than piling up in high stacks of goods at warehouses. Total business sales increased 2 percent in December from November and 5.2 percent year-over-year, the US Census Bureau said Wednesday.
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At 11 p.m. last Thanksgiving, shortly before Thursday became Black Friday, the crowds were thick at Macy’s massive flagship store in Manhattan. Some 16,000 people had lined up around the block to kick off the biggest shopping weekend of the year. Five hours after the doors opened, they were still going strong.
Warren Buffett believes in America’s future but seems more doubtful about that of Walmart and other traditional retailers. The billionaire’s Berkshire Hathaway sold off about $900 million worth of Wal-Mart Stores stock in the last quarter, or about 90% of what he had left after years of paring his investment in the discount retailer.
President Donald Trump told executives at major retail chains that he would swiftly submit a tax overhaul plan to stimulate the economy. Trump called rewriting the tax code “one of the best opportunities to really impact our economy,” during a White House breakfast Wednesday morning with chief executives of companies including Target Corp., J.C. Penney Co. and Gap Inc.
Payless is working on a restructuring plan that could entail closing as many as 1,000 stores. If the footwear retailer can’t come to terms with its lenders, it may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.