Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

San Francisco – In the last several years, restaurant revenue declined 22 to 45% during the post-Thanksgiving holiday period. According to a study across quick-serve, fast casual, and fine dining chains by customer engagement solutions provider Thanx Media Inc., the average restaurant experienced a 27% revenue decline in December, as compared to that year's monthly average.   

New York - Even in a digital age, young women still love shopping malls—especially during the holidays. According to a survey of female millennial shoppers from Teen Vogue, 65% of respondents will do the majority of their holiday shopping in stores, compared to 35% who will do most of it online. The top reasons why respondents said they would rather go to a mall than shop online during the holiday season was to see products (75%), hang out with their friends (44%), and bond with their mom (37%).  

Think young shoppers want to buy everything online? New research from Teen Vogue suggests otherwise.

Teen Vogue asked its millennial readers about their holiday shopping habits and findings related to all manner behaviors throw cold water on the notion that malls are dead or dying.

University of Arkansas alumni Ann and Gene Bordelon have contributed $100,000 to establish the Faculty Innovation Endowed Fund for the benefit of the Sam M. Walton College of Business.

By Craig Johnson, Customer Growth Partners

New York - Fifty-one percent of consumers say saving money is their top priority this holiday season, and  40% are driven by finding the right product. Those are among the findings of a recent survey conducted by RSR.  

Washington, D.C. – Retail sales showed slow but steady growth during November 2014. According to the National Retail Federation, retail sales, not including automobiles, gasoline stations or restaurants, increased 0.6% seasonally-adjusted from October and 3.2% unadjusted from November 2013.  The increases were in line with NRF’s holiday sales forecast, which anticipates an increase of 4.1% from 2013.   

Walmart’s integrity suffered a blow this week in a Bloomberg piece with the inflammatory headline, “How Walmart made its crumbling China business look so good for so long.”