Retail Stores

Led onto the stage by Mickey and Minnie Mouse, there was no mistaking that Stephen Finney was from the Disney Store when he made his entrance to give the keynote speech at this week's National Retail Federation BIG Show in New York City. The senior vice president of global retail operations for the media and entertainment company was there to talk about Disney's brick-and-mortar stores.

Retail sales rose for a sixth consecutive month in December, helped by big gains in sales of autos and furniture. The increases helped lift sales activity for the year by the largest amount in more than a decade.

To impart some of the wisdom he’s gained over the years in growing his retail business, Dave Ratner, owner and CIO (Chief Instigating Officer) of Dave's Soda and Pet City, led a session at the National Retail Federation's BIG Show this week in New York City. Ratner left attendees at the hour-long session with 10 tips they could take back to their stores and implement right away.

Limited Brands said that its December sales at stores open at least one year rose 5 percent. Analysts, on average, had expected same-store sales to rise 4.6 percent, according to Thomson Reuters.

Macy’s reported a 4.5 percent improvement in holiday sales that aligned with its expectations, however investors still booed the results, pushing the shares down in morning trade.

Shares of Kohl's slipped despite reporting a 5.9 percent increase in December sales, helped by higher demand in stores open at least one year and its e-commerce business.

Helped by stores open at least a year, leading off-price retailer TJX reported a 6 percent gain in December sales, pushing the company to raise its full-year guidance.

2010 has come to a close with a big holiday bang. Not only were holiday retail sales up big — 5.5 percent over 2009 for the 50-day period from Nov. 5 to Dec. 24 — but online retail was up some 15.4 percent. 

Daffy's has announced plans to open a store in New York's Times Square. The discount retailer has signed a lease for a 28,000-sq.-ft. store in the former New York Times building on 44th Street. The new store will have a ground-floor entrance, but the bulk of the space will be on the basement level. The Times Square store is scheduled to open in fall 2011, and the company hopes to add a total of 14 New York-area stores before 2015.

It's beginning to look a lot like a Merry Christmas after all for retailers. Sales projections are increasing nearly every week as even shoppers who said they were finished hit malls this week. Now stores are starting to say they expect the 2011 holiday season to be even better.