Seasonal

TORONTO — Sears held a National Great Day event Saturday, December 15, at stores across Canada to help generate customer traffic and reward shoppers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

February 2013 promises to be an interesting month at Best Buy following the retailer’s decision to extend the timeframe for company founder and former chairman Richard Schulze to submit a potential buyout offer.

Schulze will have the entire month of February to present an offer and then the board will review the offer within 30 days to determine if it is in the best interests of shareholders.

Seattle -- Nordstrom announced that it plans to open a Nordstrom Rack in downtown Washington, D.C., at the 1800 L Street, NW building. The approximately 35,000-sq.-ft. store is scheduled to open in spring 2013.

The retailer also plans to open a Nordstrom Rack at Columbia Crossing in Columbia, Md., a shopping center that is owned and operated by Kimco Realty Corp. The approximately 40,750-sq.-ft. store is expected to open in spring 2013.

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