Free Republic

Super Saturday (Dec. 21) was expected to be a bigger sales day this year than Black Friday and it did not disappoint. Bloomberg reports it was the biggest single day in US retail history: Holiday shopping set records over the weekend, with Super Saturday sales reaching $34.4 billion, the biggest single day in U.S. retail history, according to Customer Growth Partners.“Paced by the ‘Big Four’ mega-retailers — Walmart, Amazon, Costco and Target — Super Saturday was boosted by the best traffic our team has seen in years,” said Craig Johnson, president of the retail research firm…While foot traffic was...

When I was growing up  every town had at least one iconic department store that did Christmas right: fabulous back-lit and magical Christmas displays, often animated, gracing all of their street level windows. In a time before kids were so wired into their iPhones and “social” networks that they missed much of the amazement of the real world, there were all these fabulous windows of mystery and wonder, free for the taking. All it took was a dime bus ride downtown.  I was very lucky as my hometown, Grand Rapids, MI, had three such emporiums of merchandise, all founded in...

For over a century, Chicagoans grew up with a signature memory: special days downtown, shopping at Marshall Field’s and Carson’s, the great rival retail giants down the block from each other on State Street. (shown here: Carson's longtime downtown landmark by Louis Sullivan, sold off years ago). Smaller stores came and went, but Field’s and Carson’s were the giants, the dominant figures in Midwestern retail for generations. Macy’s bought out the struggling Field’s chain over a decade ago and cremated the brand name while keeping the stores. Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. wasn’t so lucky; its current holding company, Bon-Ton,...

Macy’s says it plans to close about 100 stores next year as the department store operator aims to become more nimble in a competitive market. That represents close to 14 percent of its store base. […] The nation’s largest department store chain says that it earned $11 million, or 3¢ per share, in the quarter ended July 30. That compares with $217 million, or 64¢ per share, in the year-ago period. …

One report said the bombs were packed with nails Two people have died in twin explosions at shops in the city of Iligan in the southern Philippines. At least 47 people were injured - two critically - in the blasts, which went off minutes apart in two shops packed with Christmas shoppers. Police have blamed "terrorists" for the bombs, and Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice. Iligan is on the island of Mindanao, which has an active Muslim insurgency. There have been sporadic clashes between government troops and rebels fighting for self rule...