Retail Stores

For those keeping score, consumers’ voracious appetites for great deals on Thanksgiving and Black Friday this year helped secure this weekend’s place in the record books. According to a National Retail Federation survey conducted by BIGresearch over the weekend, traffic and spending were up both online and in stores, reaching historic highs.

1-800-Flowers.com announced the signing of a 45-store franchise development agreement for its Fannie May Fine Chocolates division with GB Chocolates. The agreement calls for 45 new Fannie May franchise stores beginning in December 2011, with all open and operating by year-end 2014.

Brown Shoe Company said its third-quarter profit jumped sharply as the sale of a business unit offset soft sales. The shoe company also said it will continue to trim its business to improve its profitability, announcing plans to exit several business lines and close stores nationwide.

Black Friday is an unforgiving affair. Retailers duke it out, using middle-of-the-night openings, limited-time promotions and mega sales as their weapons in the battle to grab as much share of consumers' holiday shopping budgets as possible.

What was once a single day event has grown into a five-day kickoff weekend, running Thanksgiving Thursday through Cyber Monday. The holiday shopping season has arrived. Here are some last-minute tips from Google on what to expect and how to maximize sales this week.

Target received six red and white Target bags full of petitions yesterday signed by 190,000 people to protest stores opening for Black Friday sales at midnight the morning after Thanksgiving.

Egg shortages were reported at some Target stores after the retailer ended its relationship with a producer accused of animal cruelty. The company scrambled yesterday to line up new suppliers before Thanksgiving.

Retailers may get a late Christmas gift this year. Up to 60 percent more shoppers will walk through their doors on Dec. 26 than on the same day last year. According to ShopperTrak, consumers will come out in full force on the day after Christmas because it falls on a Monday for the first time in six years.

OfficeMax announced it will close 20 stores by the end of 2011 in addition to downsizing existing stores and curtailing expansion as a means to cut costs following weak sales, according to published reports.

Gap warned investors to brace themselves for some rough numbers: the company's net income for the third quarter dropped over a third compared to this time last year. Gap CEO Glenn Murphy admits that it's mostly because the company's main retailers — Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic — just haven't been designing very stylish clothes that people want to buy.