Budgets/Spending/Market Size

Mountain View, Calif. -- Consumers who use digital coupons both shop more and spend more than the average shopper. According to the  "Digital Coupon Redeemer: Shopper Trends" report, heavy digital coupon users shop 47%  more often than the average shopper, spending $6,081 annually on groceries and household goods alone – a 114% more than the national average.

Dollar Tree has agreed to sell 330 of its stores to the private-equity firm Sycamore Partners in order to get regulatory approval for its $8.5 billion purchase of Family Dollar.

Sycamore Partners intends to operate the 330 stores, which represent approximately $45.5 million of operating income for Family Dollar, under the Dollar Express banner.

Arlington, Va. – As part of the Department of Energy’s ongoing efforts to increase energy efficiency in buildings across the country, the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) was recently awarded a three-year $750,000 grant to support its Retail Energy Management Program.

RILA was one of eight recipients of the DOE’s total $6 million investment.

Issaquah, Wash. – Costco Wholesale Corp. reported rising profit in the third quarter of fiscal 2015. But a surging dollar and low gas prices resulted in sluggish sales growth and an unusual same-store sales decline, the company’s first quarterly drop since 2009.

Net income increased 9% to $516 million from $473 million, aided by relatively flat operating expenses.

Total revenue for the quarter, ended May 10, increased 1% to $26.1 million, below Wall Street expectations, from $25.8 million last year.

Hamilton, Bermuda – Signet Jewelers Ltd. topped Wall Street earnings estimates for the first quarter of fiscal 2016. Signet earnings rose 10% to $118.8 million, from $96.6 million the same quarter the previous fiscal year.

Total sales were $1.53 billion, up 45% compared to $1.06 billion. The increase was primarily driven by the addition of the Zale division. Same-store sales increased 3.6%. E-commerce sales were $76.9 million, up 98.7%, with Zale e-commerce sales a major driver.

Carpinteria, Calif. – America’s love affair with credit cards continues heating up. According to The Nilson Report, purchase volume at merchants for general purpose-type consumer and commercial credit, debit, and prepaid cards issued in the U.S. totaled $4.91 trillion in 2014, up 8.4% from 2013.

Credit cards increased their market share in purchase volume compared to debit and prepaid cards to 53.59% in 2014, up from 52.95% in 2013.

Ft. Myers, Fla. -- Chico's FAS Inc. on Wednesday reported that its first-quarter profit dropped 18% amid restructuring charges and lower sales.

The apparel retailer reported a profit of $32.5 million for the period ended, down from $39.9 million in the year-ago period. The results met Wall Street expectations.

Revenue rose 1.7% to $693.3 million in the period, which was short of Street forecasts.

Same-store sales fell 0.1%.
 

London -- The most valuable retail brand in the world lacks physical stores. At least that’s according to the tenth annual BrandZTM Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking, released by WPP and Millward Brown. Chinese online giant Alibaba took the top spot of the retail, with a brand value of $66.4 billion, overtaking Amazon, at $62.3 billion.