Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

There was a lot of negativity in the air this week regarding Walmart. Jefferies & Co. analyst Dan Binder downgraded the company on Tuesday and proceeded to appear on CNBC where he expressed concerns about company specific issues at Walmart regarding turnaround initiatives not gaining traction in the time frame he had hoped for.

MINNEAPOLIS — July same-store sales at Target increase 4.1% on top of a prior year gain of 2%, with increase transaction size the primary driver of an increase toward the upward end of the company’s guidance.

July same-store sales at Fred’s declined 0.5% and that’s not a particularly good sign for Walmart, as the company prepares to release its quarterly results on Aug. 16. Fred’s appeals to lower income shoppers at its 672 stores in the Southeastern U.S. where the company has considerable overlap with Walmart.

Purchase, N.Y. -- Apparel continued to show gains in July, while housing-related sectors such as electronics, appliances, and furniture remained sluggish, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, a macroeconomic report tracking national retail and services sales. (The data estimates total U.S. retail sales across all payment forms including cash and check.)

In other findings, auto parts and service posted its first decline after five months of growth.

Westlake Village, Calif. -- Lowe's ranked highest in customer satisfaction among appliance retailers for a second consecutive year, achieving a score of 807 on a 1,000-point scale, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2011 Appliance Retailer Satisfaction Study. The study measures satisfaction based on performance in six areas: sales staff and service; store facility; merchandise (i.e., variety of brands/models offered and availability of merchandise and product information); price; delivery service; and installation service.

Washington, D.C. -- A Tuesday report from the Commerce Department showed that consumer spending dropped 0.2% in June, to $21.9 billion.

Personal income was virtually flat for the month, increasing 0.1% to $18.7 billion, which was in line with estimates.

San Francisco -- Survey results released by online customer experience management software provider Tealeaf and mobile feedback solution-provider OpinionLab found that the majority of e-business and customer experience professionals feel that the mobile experience is as important as that of a fixed website.

New York City -- Discount stores will continue to dominate as the destination for the majority of consumers’ back-to-school dollars this year, with office supply stores also remaining strong, according to a survey by Accenture on parents’ back-to-school shopping plans. The majority of parents (59%) will spend between $100 and $500 on back-to-school shopping this year, with 21% of consumers saying they plan to spend more than $500 this year. That’s down from 28% in 2010, indicating a decline in spending on the big ticket items for school.