Marketing Tactics

LOS ANGELES — Kim, Kourtney and Khloé Kardashian’s eyewear line available through Sears Optical is now available online as well as in stores.

The Kardashian Kollection Eyewear line was introduced at retail locations nationwide in July of this year and includes eyeglasses and sunglasses.

Same store sales in November at Target plunged unexpectedly while apparel discounters and Costco kept humming and Kroger extended its string of consecutive comp increases to nine years.

The nations second largest grocer this week reported a third quarter profit, excluding some non-recurring items, of 46 cents that was three cents better than analysts forecast and its identical store sales increased by 3.2%. Total sales including fuel for the period increased 5.9% to $21.8 billion.

Atlanta -- Year-over-year retail dollar volume growth on Thanksgiving and Black Friday was healthy at 5.6% as many retailers started the holiday shopping season earlier this year and consumers welcomed the opportunity to find bargains, according to a study by First Data Corp.’s First Data SpendTrend analysis for Black Friday 2012 compared with Black Friday 2011. (SpendTrend tracks same-store consumer spending by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT, closed-loop prepaid cards and checks at U.S. merchant locations.)

New York -- Aeropostale reported Thursday that profit for the third quarter rose to $24.9 million, from $24.1 million last year.
 
Sales increased 2% to $605.9 million, beating Wall Street’s expected $601.2 million. Same-store sales dipped 2%.

A worse than expected 1% decline in November same store sales indicates the holiday season is off to a slow start at Target.

The 1% decline was substantially worse than the low single digit increase the company forecast at the start of the month when it reported a 2.4% increase for October that was toward the low end of guidance. The November weakness suggest traffic trends may be deteriorating at Target as the company said blamed the decline on a decrease in comparable store transactions following that metric’s flat performance in October.

Las Vegas -- Denny has opened a  flagship diner, called "Denny's on Fremont," on Freemont Street in downtown Las Vegas. Among other attractions, the one-of-a-kind diner: boasts an in-house wedding chapel.

New York -- Many retailers blamed Hurricane Sandy for weak sales in November, although some companies were buoyed later in the month by a long Thanksgiving weekend.

Eighteen retailers reported that sales in November through last Saturday were up 1.7% compared with the year-ago period, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. That is below the anticipated forecast for a 4.5% to 5.5% gain.

TJX Companies reported a 3% comp increase on top of a prior year gain of 4% while Ross Stores said posted a comp increase of 2% compared to last November’s 5% comp increase.

Total sales at TJX increased 7% to $2.2 billion during the November reporting period and so far this year sales at the company have advanced 10% to $20.3 billion. Total sales for November at Ross increased 6% to $813 million and so far this year are up 11% to nearly $7.8 billion.