Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

Birmingham, Ala. -- Books-A-Million on Tuesday reported a second-quarter loss of $2.9 million, compared with a net income of $1.9 million in the year-ago period. The chain faulted lower sales as consumers move away from traditional books and pressure from the liquidation sales Borders Group is conducting.

Revenue fell 11.4% to $106.4 million from $120 million last year. Same-store sales fell 12.9%.

SAN MATEO, Calif. — New data released Friday by Motista suggests that retailers should look beyond the traditional set of holiday emotions, such as family and giving, to understand what’s really motivating consumers to spend more. The data also revealed different ways in which men and women interact and connect with retailers, which may be useful as retailers plan their holiday marketing campaigns.

By Jeff Weidauer, [email protected]

Washington, D.C. -- A survey released Tuesday by the National Retail Federation and conducted by BIGresearch showed that department stores, clothing stores and websites are expected to attract most of the last-minute back-to-school purchases.

According to NRF’s 2011 Back-to-School survey, the average family has completed 43% of shopping for K-12 students, similar to last year’s 43.2%. College students and their parents have completed 44.3% f their shopping, up slightly from last year’s 43.1%.

If you’re peeking at the news between slats in your fingers, scared to see where the S&P 500 sits or what’s happening with the NASDAQ, the Dow and the price of oil, you’re quite obviously not alone. Each day is a frightening new one, and no one – not even economists – are quite sure what’s going to happen next.

Not long after the Vintage Varsity collection of young men’s and women’s apparel hits stores, Target News Now opined that the garments seemed a little pricy and cost conscious college kids would be likely to defer purchases until the goods were marked down.

More specifically, we said, “College girls may love the look of the tees, tanks, sweats and shorts Target has offered up under the Vintage Varsity brand this season, but the prices the items are offered at isn’t anything to text home about.”

It’s always satisfying to look back and enjoy your professional successes. While I see nothing wrong with patting yourself on the back and basking in well-earned personal kudos, I have found that, from time to time, we must also remember where we’ve fallen short. Thinking about past mistakes certainly keeps me humble. More importantly, I’m almost always able to learn something from my missteps. After all, the more insight and information I can gather about why I was wrong about something, the more accurate I will be in the future.

GRAPEVINE, Texas — GameStop reported a same-store sales decline of 9.1% for the second quarter on slow hardware sales and a lighter software slate than the prior year quarter. Despite the poor performance in new hardware and software, the company said pre-owned sales were strong for the quarter.

Total sales for the second quarter of 2011 were $1.74 billion, a decrease of 3.1% compared to $1.80 billion in the prior year quarter.