Winter Holidays

Dallas -- J.C. Penney announced it will celebrate Black Friday with its only sale of the year. The retailer said more than 1,100 J.C. Penney stores will open their doors at 6 a.m. on Black Friday to offer low prices on gifts for the entire family — with no coupons or rebates required. Associates throughout the store will be equipped with mobile checkout devices.

New York -- Dillard’s third quarter merchandise sales for the quarter ended Oct. 27 increased 4% to more than $1.4 billion, same-store sales increased 5% and operating profits increased 84% to nearly $73 million. Gross margins expanded 40 basis points to 37.1% and same-store inventory levels were down 1%.

New York -- Target plans to open at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day to kick of its Black Friday promotional efforts and will follow up with additional deals that become available at 4 a.m.

The company is also rewarding its REDcard holders by allowing them early access to select Black Friday sale items at Target.com.

Sam’s Club’s decision to open at 7 a.m. on Black Friday is a definite "swim upstream" move on the part of the warehouse club operator given retail industry trends and Walmart’s decision to offer its Black Friday deals on Thanksgiving.

Walmart will sell a bazillion electronics products this holiday season, no thanks to Consumer Reports which rates the company last as a CE destination.

Apple and Costco were ranked one and two as the best venues for CE items followed by a bizarre classification called "independents," considering the CE space is dominated by chains. The Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) and Sam’s Club ranked highly. Walmart was last among the 14 physical retailers ranked with a score of 81, compared to Apple and Costco at 92.

Shopko will open for extended hours and feature special door buster prices on hundreds of items beginning　Thanksgiving Day.

Black Friday can be so limiting which is why OfficeMax is expanding a program it offered last year involving special deal pricing every Friday until mid December.

New York -- Confidence among consumers hit a five-year high in November, boding well for retailers as they head into the holiday season.

The index of consumer sentiment from Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan rose to 84.9 in November from 82.6, topping economists' expectations for a reading of 83.

Atlanta -- Hurricane Sandy impacted spending in the Northeast, according to First Data’s most recent SpendTrend report, which analyzed date for the full month of October 2012 compared with October 2011. SpendTrend tracks same-store consumer spending by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT, closed-loop prepaid cards and checks at U.S. merchant locations.