Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

Walmart, Target and Best Buy attracted record levels of customers to their websites during November, according to data released this week by the online measurement firm comScore. Retailers have come to expect a surge in traffic to their sites as the holiday approach and during November that proved to be the case and then some.

QUINCY, Mass. - Stop & Shop Supermarket announced that it set a new record in 2010 with its annual Food for Friends campaign. More than $2 million -- a 40% increase from 2009 -- will be donated to more than 300 local food pantries and regional food banks throughout Stop & Shop's operating areas this year, the company reported.

New York - Fifteen percent or 23.1 million consumers (16 years of age or older) plan to shop on Christmas Eve (December 24), according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs (ICSC-GS) holiday consumer tracking survey.

American consumers had more than holiday shopping on their mind during the third quarter as evidenced by record sales results from CarMax. The nation’s largest seller of used cars with 103 superstores nationwide said its same-store sales increased 16% during then third quarter ended November 30. Total sales increased by 23% to slightly more than $2.1 billion and earnings per share of 36 cents were two cents better than analysts forecast.

Chicago - Boosted by a very weak comparison period, ShopperTrak’s National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE) reported that total GAFO retail sales for the last Saturday before Christmas (12/18), or Super Saturday, increased a sharp 15.1% compared with last year, while the company’s retail traffic index (SRTI) reported a similar 10.1% total U.S. foot traffic uptick for the same period.

PORT WASHINGTON, New York – The NPD Group announced that John Deputato will head its expanded advanced analytics business as SVP. 

As SVP, Deputato has overall responsibility for leading and growing NPD’s Advanced Analytics business in North America.  His scope encompasses the strategic vision and tactical direction of this important business.  In this newly-created role, he will report to Randall Smith, group president. 

Competition in the toy category is intense every holiday season, but it seems to have been ratcheted up a few notches this year, and Target was one of the companies doing the ratcheting. The company’s aggressive pricing moves put it in close proximity to Walmart early in the season and more recently Target’s toys were less expensive than Walmart’s, according to a pricing survey conducted by Citigroup retail analyst Deb Weinswig.

Of all the competitive threats facing Walmart, none looms larger in the minds of the retailer’s suppliers than the ongoing expansion and financial success of leading operators in the dollar store segment. That’s according to Walmart suppliers who participated in a survey conducted by Connecting Northwest Arkansas and identified such chains as Dollar General and Family Dollar as the greatest competitive threat to Walmart during the next five years.