Seasonal

Bucking a retail industry trend this year, Sam’s Club won’t be open on Thanksgiving Day and on Black Friday it won’t open until 7 a.m. Instead, Sam’s is throwing some new promotional wrinkles at members and non-members including, “Sam’s Sunday,” event to drive sales.

In keeping with the new holiday tradition of revealing promotions early, Walmart on Friday shared its range of extreme value items and free shipping offers and pushed the start of Cyber Monday to Saturday, November 30.

The headliner deal is a LG brand 55 inch, 3D LED television with a sound bar for $799 along with 200 other online specials that will last through Friday, December 6. Walmart also reduced its free shipping threshold to $35 from $50.

Kirkland’s plans to continue investing in its e-commerce business and anticipates executing a more aggressive approach to store growth, following strong third-quarter results.

The company reported net sales for the third quarter ended Nov. 2 of $106.1 million, a 9.8% increase from $96.7 million for the year-ago quarter. Comparable-store sales, including e-commerce sales, for the quarter increased 4.9% compared with a decrease of 4.7% in the year-ago quarter.

Despite the growing popularity of online shopping, millions of consumers will flock to the stores this Black Friday. According to a recent study from WD Partners, "Amazon Can't Do That: Consumer Desire & the Store of the Future,” 79% of consumers rank instant ownership as a top factor in influencing how they shop.

Other store-friendly top influencers include sensory experience and product immersion (75%), emotional experience of interacting with live human beings, community, and personal service.

Buoyed by its performance during Back to School season, Hibbett Sporting Goods sounded an optimistic tone regarding the holidays after reporting a surprisingly strong third quarter comp increase.

The operator of 904 stores in 31 states said its same store sales increased 4.8% and total sales increased 2.5% to $208 million during the quarter ended November 2.

Apprehension regarding shoppers’ willingness to spend during the shortened holiday season has reached the point where even retailers presumably well positioned to benefit from frugality are sounding alarms.

The most recent is Ross Stores vice chairman and CEO Michael Balmuth who shared his concerns about the fourth quarter even as the operator of 1,154 stores reported third quarter sales that were in line with expectations and profits that exceeded guidance due to margin expansion.

Harley-Davidson is looking to drive holiday sales by leveraging the power of Pinterest to promote its new online holiday gift guide.

Washington, D.C. -- More than 60% of consumers will start holiday shopping on Black Friday and most will spend more than 50% of their holiday budget over the Thanksgiving weekend, according to research by the Georgetown Institute for Consumer Research, sponsored by KPMG.

New York -- MasterCard Advisor’s latest MasterCard Spending Pulse survey found that there are some product categories that won’t see the biggest spending uptick on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The monthly SpendingPulse report anticipates that the biggest shopping day of the season for jewelry and luxury retailers will be Dec. 21 – the last Saturday before Christmas, which is becoming commonly known as “Super Saturday.”

San Francisco -- Williams-Sonoma Inc.'s on Thursday reported that its third-quarter profit rose a better-then-expected 16% as same-store sales increased across all its brands. The company also raised its full-year view.