Budgets/Spending/Market Size

San Jose, Calif. -- Sandwich chain Togo's Eateries Inc. announced Monday it is in development on 30 new Togo’s units, as the company executed as many franchise agreements in 2012 in order to add to its West Coast presence.

New York -- Macy’s January announcement that it would close some stores in 2013 seems to have generated a disproportionate amount of scrutiny. Is it business as usual for the department store retailer, or is the news representative of something more far-reaching?  

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New York -- Consumer confidence fell in January to a one-year low, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index released Friday.

The month’s preliminary index fell to 71.3, the lowest since December 2011, from 72.9 in December. Economists had forecast the index would rise to 75, Bloomberg News reported.

New York -- Family Dollar on Friday increased its annual dividend by 24%. The annual payout now totals $1.04 following a decision by the retailer’s board to elevate the quarterly dividend to 26 cents a share from 21 cents a share.

In addition, the board authorized the repurchase of an additional $300 million in stock under an existing program that had only $94 million in authorization remaining.

RACINE, Wis. — SC Johnson is marking its 90th anniversary of donating to the local United Way.

For nearly a century, the family-owned company known for brands such as Glade, Pledge and Scrubbing Bubbles has donated more than $50 million in cumulative contributions to the local nonprofit organization.

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. — According to global information company the NPD Group, consumers rewarded the U.S. retail toy industry with a strong December.

Based on data from the NPD Group’s Retail Tracking Service, many shoppers waited until the last two weeks of December to do their holiday toy shopping. Looking at those two weeks, dollar sales were up 18%and unit sales were up 10% when compared to the same time period in 2011.  

New York -- A report released Wednesday by MasterCard revealed that Canadian retail sales, which grew just 1.6% in December, trailed the U.S., which also posted less than stellar results for the month.

Sales in the U.S. advanced 2.4% in December.

Canada’s results were particularly disappointing, considering the country’s December sales grew 4.3% in December 2011, according to MasterCard’s SpendingPulse report.

New York -- Total holiday retail sales increased 3% to $579.8 billion, below the National Retail Federation s projected forecast of 4.1%. Non-store holiday sales grew 11%, below the 12% growth forecast by Shop.org. (The NRF sales figures exclude automobiles, gas stations and restaurants.)

“For over six months, we’ve been saying that the fiscal cliff and economic uncertainty could impact holiday sales. As the number shows, these issues had a visible impact on consumer spending this holiday season,” said Matthew Shay, CEO, NRF.