Seasonal

PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Dick’s Sporting Goods has announced its first-ever "Get Winter Ready" consumer promotion.

Dick’s has teamed up with The North Face and Columbia Sportswear as part of the program's sweepstakes, and will be giving away two one-of-kind prize packages. One includes a chance to join professional skier Tom Wallisch at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colo., and the other offers a VIP experience at the 2013 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup in Park City, Utah.

York, Pa. -- Bon-Ton Stores narrowed its fiscal third-quarter loss narrowed partly on lower expenses.

For the period ended Oct. 27, Bon-Ton lost $10.1 million, compared with a loss of $22 million a year earlier.

Revenue rose 2% to $668.7 million from $656.1 million. Same-store sales rose 1.9%.

Walmart maintained an optimistic outlook for the holiday season despite 1.5% third quarter comp increase that reflected a modest deceleration in sales momentum seen earlier this year.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reported Thursday net income of $3.64 billion for the quarter ended Oct. 31, up from $3.34 billion in the year-ago period.

Sales rose 3.4% to $113.20 billion, as U.S. sales beat internal expectations but overall missed Wall Street’s expected $114.96 in revenue.

Wal-Mart U.S. saw same-store sales rise 1.5%, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of same-store sales growth after nine straight quarterly declines. At Sam’s Club, same-store sales rose 2.7%, excluding fuel.

Chicago -- Retailers project a 3.1% increase in sales on Black Friday, according to a survey of top retail chief marketing officers by BDO USA, LLP. This optimism follows last year's modest projection of 1.6% growth, which preceded record sales over Thanksgiving weekend.

A 2.9% third quarter same store sales increase and the sale of its credit card business pushed Target’s third quarter profit up 17.6% to 96 cents a share.

Total sales increased 3.4% to $16.6 billion in third quarter due to the 2.9% comp increase and the benefit of a net increase of 18 stores compared to the prior year. Target ended the period with 1,781 stores and was up against a challenging prior year comparison when comps advanced 4.3%.

The busiest shopping weekend of the year is just around the corner and retailers who don’t hit their sales plan won’t be able to blame the weather.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Tuesday by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates said that import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to increase 5.9% in November despite the temporary closure of some ports by superstorm Sandy.