There’s a long, storied history of retailers battling it out for holiday shopping dollars. Price wars, seasonal promotions aimed at one-upping the competition, and price-matching guarantees are all commonplace, and considered …
retail
New Holiday Tradition: Buying Yourself a Gift
Gift exchanges are so inefficient. Unless everyone’s picked out presents via gift registry, there’s a decent chance someone will receive an unwanted gift—which amounts to a waste of time and money. And if everyone’s picked out …
Retail Shoppers: 3 Minutes to Check-out, Or I’m Out of Here!
Long lines are bad for business. An especially long line at a store’s checkout area can scare off some customers from making a purchase, or just leave the shopper aggravated—and less likely to come back. Also, the longer the …
Watch Out Amazon: Google Looking to Venture into Delivery Services
After watching Amazon corner the online retail market, Google is in talks with merchants to begin a delivery service that would allow users to order items online from local stores and receive them within a day. But does it make …
How Much Do You Actually Save Shopping at Outlet Malls?
This past weekend’s monumental $52 billion shopping binge notwithstanding, that most American of retail institutions—the mall—hasn’t fared particularly well in recent times. Especially not when compared to their low-budget …
Retailers Want a Rematch in Swipe-Fee Battle: Will Consumers Lose?
The financial industry was stunned last summer when the Federal Reserve handed down a rule that effectively halved the amount banks could charge stores every time one of their customers swiped a debit card at a checkout terminal. …
Black Friday: $52 Billion for Stores, Big Credit Card Bills for Us
Shoppers blew away even the most optimistic projections of retail analysts by dropping just over $52 billion on Black Friday weekend, according to the National Retail Federation. It’s a bonanza for merchants, but it comes with a dark flip side: Numerous surveys indicate that Americans are using their credit cards to fuel this buying binge.
Holiday Shopping: Will Cyber Monday Outshine Black Friday?
Black Friday was no bust. Retail sales turned out to be far stronger than predicted, rising by nearly 7% compared with last year’s day-after-Thanksgiving shopping bonanza. Finishing off the holiday weekend that’s all about consumption—first, in terms of turkey, and later on, shopping—is the e-commerce spectacular, Cyber Monday. …
How Smartphones, Price-Check Apps, and Daily Deals Are Changing Black Friday—and the Entire Holiday Shopping Season
Smartphones—and therefore, deals—are everywhere this holiday season. This means that shoppers should have an especially easy time getting the best price on gifts. Then again, it also means that retailers have an especially …
Think Black Friday Has the Cheapest Prices? Think Again
The only rational explanations for lining up outside the mall before the sun rises and putting up with monster crowds to go shopping on Black Friday are: 1) You just love the crazed, festival-like atmosphere; and/or 2) you assume …
Why Orange Juice is More Expensive on Saturday
A few weeks ago, when I was in Tokyo, I happened upon a camera store selling just what I was looking for, at a price that was simply too good to refuse. However, the more advanced model was also on sale. This left me with a …
Filene’s Basement Is Marking Down Merchandise for the Last Time
It looks like the brides have run for the last time. Filene’s Basement, the century-old discount retailer based in the Northeast and famous for its chaotic “Running of the Brides” sale, in which women rummage through aisles of …
