Budgets/Spending/Market Size

Washington, D.C. -- Retail employment increased 18,200 in March and 229,000 year-over-year, according to the National Retail Federation. The increase is consistent with recent positive economic indicator reports and bodes well for income and consumer confidence as the industry enters into the busy spring selling season.

Camp Hill, Pa. -- For the four weeks ended March 29, 2014, same-store sales at Rite Aid increased 0.7% from the prior-year period. March front-end same-store sales decreased 5%, with 4.1% of the decrease attributable to a shift in the timing of Easter, which falls on April 20 in 2014 compared to March 31 in the prior year.

Total drugstore sales for the four-week period increased 0.4% to $1.95 billion, compared to $1.94 billion for the same period last year.

Sam’s Club and the Gallup organization have launched a new quarterly tracking poll that focuses on the smallest of small business.

The poll is designed to look at what Sam’s is calling “microbusiness,” companies with five or fewer employees, that represent a core customer of Sam’s Club and are estimated to total 25 million.

Deerfield, Ill. - Walgreens had March 2014 sales of $6.43 billion, an increase of 4.5% from $6.16 billion for the same month in fiscal 2013.

Same-store sales increased by 3.5% in March. Calendar day shifts positively impacted total same-store sales by 0.6%.

Sunnyvale, Calif. – Application support and maintenance (ASM) may hold potential to deliver $6.8 billion in savings to Fortune 2000 organizations. According to a survey of 300 U.S. and U.K. CIOs released by IT services provider HCL Technologies Ltd., ASM now accounts for 38% of large organizations’ overall IT budget each year.

New York -- U.S. convenience outlets reached record in-store sales in 2013, with sales climbing 2.4% to $204 billion. Combined with gasoline sales of $491.5 billion, overall convenience store sales were $695.5 billion, according to figures released by the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS). Convenience stores account for 34.3% of all retail outlets in the United States, according to Nielsen, which is significantly higher than the U.S. total of other retail channels including drugstores.

New York – While attitudes haven't changed overwhelmingly since December 2013, some shifts in plans for the next six months may indicate that Americans are questioning their financial prospects during the next few months, according to a new Harris Poll. The survey of 2,234 U.S. adults shows that Americans are more likely than in December to say that they plan on decreasing their spending on eating out at restaurants (59%, up four points) within the next six months.

Beachwood, Ohio — DDR Corp. has announced that it sold 14 non-prime assets in the first quarter for gross proceeds of $198 million. The company’s share of the proceeds totaled $142 million. In addition, DDR currently counts 14 non-prime operating assets valued at $97 million and $36 million of non-income producing assets currently under contract. DDR expects its share of the proceeds from these transactions to come to $103.