Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

Atlanta -- A report released Tuesday by First Data Corp., which tracks same-store consumer spending by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT cards and checks at U.S. merchant locations, found that warm weather and spring promotions boosted discretionary spending in March.

According to First Data’s March 2012 SpendTrend report, year-over-year dollar volume growth was 8.7% in March, compared with February’s 8.9% growth.

In March there was a decline in the number of circulars overall, however, pages per flyer increased. The increase in pages was primarily due to a significant increase in Walmart and Toys"R"Us page counts. Much of the promotional activity was driven by Easter falling earlier in April as compared to 2011.

Walmart distributed an additional four-page flyer in the week of 3/11/2012; they also circulated two flyers instead one in most of the markets in the week of 3/4/2012. These additional flyers accounted for the increase total pages as compared with last year.

Dallas -- Tuesday Morning Corp. reported Tuesday that same-store sales for the quarter ended Mar. 31 dropped 3.2% on spending and traffic decreases.

According to the discount retailer, traffic dipped 1.8% for the third quarter and average tickets fell 1.4%. Total revenue edged down 1% to $172.7 million, compared with $174.3 million in the year-ago period.
 

Is Walmart’s private brand White Cloud toilet tissue too good? That’s the question the company has to be asking itself about the product’s specifications after seeing recent test results from Consumer Reports.

Armonk, N.Y. -- An IBM analytics-based forecast released Thursday expects that sales of home furnishings in the United States will shoot higher in the second quarter, with in-store sales increasing nearly 8% to $23.2 billion and online sales increasing 28.4%.

Combined in-store and online sales of home furnishings are expected to grow 16.6% in the second quarter.

Walmart is the nation’s largest food retailer, and 140 million people shop its stores each week, yet somehow the company ranked second to last on a ranking of the best and worst supermarkets in America.

Chelmsford, Mass. -- The Retail Labor Index released Thursday by Kronos Inc. indicated that applications for retail jobs are waning.

The April Index, which characterizes the March 2012 state of the demand and supply sides of the labor market within the U.S. retail sector, prepared by Macroeconomic Advisers, was down slightly in March to a still solid 4.3%. (The index is defined as the ratio of hires to applications within a given month, expressed as a percentage. A level of 3% means that for every 100 applications received, three hires occurred).

BOSTON — A study conducted by Brodeur Partners has unveiled the most relevant retailers in the United States.