Finance & Capital Management

New York City -- After coming off a strong November, retailers found their momentum waned in December, with many turning in mixed sales for the month. Industry experts said sales were impacted by a still-cautious consumer and the blizzard the crippled the Northeast in the days immediately following Christmas.

Thomson Reuters, which tracks same-store sales for a group of 28 national chains, said total sales for the group were expected to post a 3.4% increase in same-store sales for December, following a 5.6% bump in November.

MINNEAPOLIS - Despite an easy prior-year comparison, Target fell short of its December same-store sales guidance with a disappointing 0.9% gain. The company had forecast December comps in the low to mid single-digit range after it released November results, which saw comps advance 5.5%. Analysts were expecting the company to report a 4% December gain.

Richardson, Texas -- Wingstop announced it will add another 20 stores in Mexico over the next three years thanks to an extended development agreement with current international franchisee WIS de Mexico S.A. de C.V.

Wingstop has more than 475 restaurants open across the United States and Mexico.

“We are thrilled with our success in Mexico over this past year,” said David Vernon, VP franchise sales for Wingstop.

Columbus, Ohio -- Retail same-store sales eased to 3.2% growth in December in the wake of November’s exceptionally strong promotional activity and an ongoing shift toward online shopping, according to Kantar Retail. The sales-weighted composite for the 31 retailers reporting -- most of them apparel retailers -- was weaker than the 5.6% same-store sales gain last month, but slightly better than the 3.0% gain in December of 2009. (The calculations no longer include Walmart, which stopped reporting monthly results in 2009. )

Not that anyone ever forgets Walmart is a really big company, but every now and then a fresh reminder surfaces. That was the case this week with an announcement by Datacert, Inc., that Walmart had selected its Passport technology platform to help manage domestic legal processes and systems. Big companies that make a lot of money tend to get sued a lot, and in Walmart’s case the situation is magnified by the fact that it has more than two million employees interacting each week with 200 million customers in its 8,000 stores.

TJX reported same-store sales of 2% December, beating Wall Street estimates for a 2.5% decline. Total sales rose 6% to $3 billion.

"I am extremely pleased with December's sales results, as we significantly exceeded our plans during this important period," TJX CEO Carol Meyrowitz, CEO, TJX.

Fort Worth, Texas -- Buxton, a leading customer analytics firm, has named Charles Wetzel as its new CEO.

Wetzel, 35, started at Buxton in 2004 as COO. He assumed the role of president in 2008.

“Charles is the ideal candidate to assume the CEO post at Buxton,” said Tom Buxton, founder and chairman of Buxton. “He holds the right combination of analytical expertise and management needed to lead this company into the future.”

Natick, Mass. -- BJ’s Wholesale Club said Wednesday that its December same-store sales rose 3.8% and would have been up 1.4%, excluding the impact of gasoline sales. The results were short of analysts expectations. Separately, the company said it is shutting five underperforming locations by the end of January. as well as restructuring its home office and certain field operations. It is cutting 114 corporate-level jobs, 61 of them at the company's headquarters and 53 field positions.