Costco Wholesale Corp.

By Tom Mullaney, [email protected]

New York City -- The discount and wholesale club sector was hit and miss in November, as Costco shone with a 9% rise in same-store sales for the month, but Target missed Wall Street expectations with a weak gain.

ISSAQUAH, Wash. — The nation’s leading warehouse club operator maintained its momentum in November by posting a 6% increase in same-store sales at U.S. clubs excluding the beneficial effect of higher year-over-year gas prices.

A funny thing happened on the way to Costco reporting a 6% increase in November same-store sales.

The warehouse club operator noted that sales in the electronics area increased in the high single digits and, in a reversal of prior year trends, attributed the gain to higher average selling prices as opposed to strong unit volume. In fact, unit volumes of televisions declined, but the drop was offset by strong sales of pricey big screen LED models as opposed to the prior year when sales were still dominated by LCD and plasma models that were experiencing deflationary pricing.

The strong customer traffic and sales trends retailers’ experienced Thanksgiving weekend extended into Cyber Monday when shoppers maintained their record pace of spending and propelled online sales to new heights.

The new year will see a changing of the guard in the chief executive’s office of several big retailers. Here are four to watch:

Costco
The torch has been passed at Costco Wholesale Corp., with president and COO Craig Jelinek stepping into the very big shoes of the company’s longtime chief executive and co-founder Jim Sinegal (effective January 1, 2012).

Consistent with promotional strategies from previous years, Target is offering some insane prices on popular electronics items. Unfortunately, if holiday shoppers follow the advice of Consumer Reports this year they won’t be coming to Target.

Seattle -- Starbucks Corp. announced Thursday plans to reinvent the $1.6 billion premium juice market with its all-cash purchase of San Bernadino, Calif.-based Evolution Fresh for $30 million.

The acquisition, which is part of a strategy to move beyond coffee into the health and wellness segment, gives Starbucks a path to open new health-and-wellness stores in the coming year, it said, although Starbucks has not yet revealed many stores it will open, their location or the name.