Research Topic

YONKERS, N.Y. — Consumer Reports announced that its Index, which measures overall consumer sentiment, fell to its lowest level since December 2009 and registered its sharpest drop in two years, as recent events in Washington about the debt ceiling debate fixed attention on the weak economy.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Tuesday by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates showed that import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports dropped below last year, but are expected to see year-over-year gains again this fall.

According to the monthly Global Port Tracker report, volumes will stay below last year through the summer, but will edge up as retailers begin to stock up for the holiday season.

CITY OF COMMERCE, Calif. — 99 Cents Only Stores reported that its consolidated net income for the first quarter of fiscal 2012 was $17.7 million, or 25 cents per diluted share, compared with $16.8 million, or 24 cents per diluted share, for the prior year.

Chicago -- A Tuesday report by NPD Group said that U.S. restaurant unit counts declined by 2%, which translates to a loss of 9,450 restaurants since last year.

According to the report, most of the total unit declines were independent restaurants. Chain restaurant unit counts remained relatively stable, according to NPD research.

Overall, there was an 8 % decline in the number of pages per market across the retailer set, and a 4% decline in number of inserts. Pages being down can be attributed to a steep decline in Kohl’s and Sears' number of pages per market, while the decline in number of inserts was due to Home Depot and Staples decreasing their drops.

Home Depot and Safeway adopted a similar strategy, reducing the number inserts per market in July 2011 compared with last year, while increasing the number of pages per market. 

The nation’s retailers can hope back-to-school shoppers haven’t been paying attention to the steady dose of dire economic news facing the nation the past week, but that’s pretty unlikely considering this is the information age.

New York City -- In his most recent column “Retail Rap with Jeff Green,” Chain Store Age columnist Green challenges the advent of outlet centers, questioning whether there are enough viable outlet center markets to support the growing number of developers who are plugging into the shopping center format.

Click here to read Green’s column.

By Fred Stiftel, [email protected]