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Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

  • Employees give Starbucks high marks in a key area

    Starbucks is the number one retailer employer in the United States when it comes to fostering a happy workplace.

    That’s according to a survey by CareerBliss, which analyzed the key factors that impact workplace happiness. Ace Hardware, Ikea, Apple and Barnes & Noble round out the CareerBliss top five.

    “The employee reviews on CareerBliss rank Starbucks as the number one retail employer in the United States when it comes to employee happiness,” said Heidi Golledge, co-founder of CareerBliss.

  • Most shoppers will be hitting the (physical) shops on Black Friday

    More than half of all shoppers are planning to make holiday purchases over the Thanksgiving holiday period, according to a new report.

    The 2015 International Council of Shopping Centers Black Friday Shopping Study shows that 59% of shoppers plan to make a purchase at a physical store over the weekend (Thursday-Sunday).

    Surprisingly, Cyber Monday is shaping up to be the second-most popular day for in-store shopping – even though it’s a day normally associated with online activity. Overall, Americans plan to shop in-store on:

  • All gift cards not created equal—especially when it comes to resale

    Popularity and resale value do not always correlate when it comes to gift cards.

    Visa is tops in a ranking of the gift cards expected to be most popular this holiday season.

    Rounding out the top 10: American Express; iTunes; Wal-Mart; Target; Starbucks; Netflix; eBay and Google Play. The ranking is from CardHub, a credit card comparison Web site owned by Evolution Finance.

  • Telling the real stories of retail

    At NRF, we like to think of ourselves as the industry’s chief storyteller. As the nation’s largest private-sector employer, with 3.7 million retail establishments across the country employing close to 30 million people serving every community in the nation, retail has a lot of stories to tell.

  • Survey: Retailers lag in social outreach to consumers

    Consumers find it easy to use social media for brand engagement, but that doesn’t mean they are using it.

    According to the new “Global Brand Simplicity Index” from New York-based branding firm Siegel+Gale, 65% of consumers say social media is a simple platform for learning about brands, products and services via social media. Yet only 32% use social media for this purpose.

    Similarly, 45% of consumers find social media simple for engaging customer service, but only 11% use social media for customer service engagement.

  • A holiday sales trend update from NRF

    Shoppers have wasted no time in getting started with their holiday purchases this year, according to a new survey.

    The National Retail Federation’s Consumer Holiday Spending Survey shows that 56.6% of those celebrating the holidays had already started shopping by early November, up from 54.4% last year and 16% from the 49% who had started by this time in 2008, the first time NRF asked the question. This also marks the highest percentage seen in that timeframe.

  • Report: What’s the Starbucks flap all about?

    Experts and regular folks alike are puzzled by the uproar over Starbucks’ holiday cup design, the Associated Press reported. Even New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan sounded a curious note, saying "I don't think it's like Starbucks had the Christmas crib on their cups to begin with.” [Associated Press]

  • Kohl's surprises in third quarter

    Strong back-to-school sales allowed Kohl's to upstage Macy's in the third quarter.

    Kohl's revenue rose a better-than expected 1.2% to $4.43 billion in the period ended Oct. 31. Same-store sales rose 1%. Earnings fell to $120 million, or 63 cents a share, from $142 million, or 70 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding a loss on the extinguishment of debt, adjusted per-share earnings were 75 cents a share, which also beat expectations.

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