Winter Holidays

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Target is teaming up with the United Way for the 22nd consecutive year to bring families in need some holiday cheer.

Target stores across the country will donate more than $200,000 worth of holiday trees to the charitable organization, as part of the Target Share-a-Tree Program. The United Way and its volunteers will distribute the trees to families in need, shelters, community centers and childcare programs.

Anxiety over Amazon.com is at an all time high this holiday season and a top executive at Nordstrom shared insights recently on competing successfully.

Reston, Va. — Survey results released Monday by comScore revealed that the most recent work-week saw four individual days eclipse $1 billion in spending, led by Green Monday with $1.275 billion.

comScore, which has monitored holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 44 days of the November–December 2012 holiday season, reported that to date $33.8 billion has been spent online, marking a 13% increase versus the corresponding days last year.

Purchase, N.Y. -- A SpendingPulse report released Monday by MasterCard Advisors found that after a three-week recovery of retail spending growth that started two weeks after Superstorm Sandy and lasted through the week ending Dec. 1, a slowdown occurred in the week ending Dec. 8.  

After a surge in growth in late November some key sectors such as Specialty Apparel slipped into negative growth in early December, according to the report.

Reston, Va. -- Survey results released Monday by comScore revealed that the most recent work-week saw four individual days eclipse $1 billion in spending, led by Green Monday with $1.275 billion.

comScore, which has monitored holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 44 days of the November–December 2012 holiday season, reported that to date $33.8 billion has been spent online, marking a 13% increase versus the corresponding days last year.

PLANO, Texas — Tostitos surprised 28 U.S. military veterans who have previously served overseas with a special homecoming celebration.

WAYNE, N.J. — With 12 shopping days left, Toys"R"Us plans to keep most of its stores open for 88 consecutive hours nationwide, from 6 a.m. Friday, December 21 through 10 p.m. Christmas Eve.

New York -- After nearly a year of steady gains, the Deloitte Consumer Spending Index (Index) fell in November due to a slowdown in the rise of new home prices and an accelerating decline in real wages. The Index tracks consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending.
 

Chicago -- Shoppers continued their holiday quest during the week ending Dec. 8, according to ShopperTrak. Consumer activity drove a 7.8% increase in foot traffic and 6.5% increase in sales from the previous week.  

Consumers, however, were not as active as they were at this time last year, and retail foot traffic decreased 0.7% and sales decreased 1.5% when compared to the same period in 2011.
    

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Thursday by the Commerce Department said that U.S. retail sales rose 0.3% in November from October, reflecting a bounce back after the effects of superstorm Sandy. Excluding fuel, retail sales increased a solid 0.8%. The median forecast of 81 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 0.5% rise.

The 0.3% rise offsets a 0.3% dip in October from September.