Events

New York - The City Council of Chiago has approved a boost in the minimum wage, gradually raising it to $13 an hour by 2019. The vote was pushed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel faces a reelection vote in February.

The plan raises Illinois' $8.25 rate – which is $1 higher than the federal rate – in small increments. It will get raised to $10 next year, and then increase by amounts of of 50 cents and $1. City officials estimate more than 400,000 Chicago workers will benefit.

Looking to capitalize on the immense popularity of the PBS show Downton Abbey, Cost Plus World Market is having an online tea party and expanding its range of Downton Abbey products just in time for the holiday shopping season.

The nation’s largest retail bookseller has dreamed up another innovative way to drive traffic to its stores.

Barnes & Noble has announced that it will be sponsoring the Barnes & Noble Cookie Bake-Off, a contest in which customers can submit cookie recipes for a chance to win prizes and have their winning cookies sold in Barnes & Noble stores.

Despite increasing competition from Amazon Local and Google Shopping, Groupon announced Tuesday that its holiday weekend sales set a new record.

For the full Black Friday through Cyber Monday weekend, the e-commerce site’s North American sales climbed over 25 percent from last year, the company reported. This year's Black Friday and Cyber Monday were the two biggest days in Groupon's North American history, the firm said.

New York – Black Friday was a more social event than Cyber Monday, with 3.5 million tweets and 838 million impressions compared to 839,000 tweets and 309 million impressions. According to a study from StatSocial, women were more likely than men to socially comment on both events, accounting for 59% of

Black Friday comments and 63% of Cyber Monday comments.

Washington, D.C. – In-store sales were down from Thanksgiving Day through Black Friday, but the culprit may have been early holiday shopping more than lackluster consumer interest. According to the Applied Predictive Technologies (APT) Index of U.S. same-store sales, in-store sales dropped 5.8% during that two-day period compared to the previous year.

New York - Across the country, there was strong support for local businesses on Small Business Saturday, with shopping up 14.9% from last year, according to the results from the Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey, released today by American Express and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).    

New York - Macy's Herald Square has unveiled its 2014 Christmas windows. Titled "Santa's Journey to the Stars," this year's display follows the adventures of Alex, a young boy who receives a magical and mystical telescope that enables him to experience the wonder of Christmas on other planets before landing back on Earth at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.