Retail

Nashville, Tenn. -- Genesco Inc. said Friday its third-quarter profit increased to $41 million, from $26.2 million in the year-ago period, better than Wall Street expected. The company also raised its fiscal 2013 outlook, even as it warned that November was off to a slow start.

Same store sales in November at Target plunged unexpectedly while apparel discounters and Costco kept humming and Kroger extended its string of consecutive comp increases to nine years.

The nations second largest grocer this week reported a third quarter profit, excluding some non-recurring items, of 46 cents that was three cents better than analysts forecast and its identical store sales increased by 3.2%. Total sales including fuel for the period increased 5.9% to $21.8 billion.

New York -- Facebook has added a new service, called Gifts, which allows Facebook users in the United States to buy gifts for their friends on the social media platform. The new feature, rolled out just in time for the holiday shopping season, has the potential to give Facebook an ongoing supply of valuable personal information.

Los Angeles -- Guess Inc. reported Wednesday a profit of $36.6 million for the third quarter, down 44.7% from net earnings of $66.3 million in the same period last year.
 
Revenue fell 2.2% to $628.8 million, from $642.8 million in the prior-year quarter, but beating analysts’ expected $624.8 million in revenue. Retail sales in North America dipped 1.3% to $262.1 million. Same-store sales overall dropped 6%.
 
The company said economic pressures hurt consumer confidence in most of its markets.

Kroger extended its same store sales winning streak to 36 consecutive quarters and reported better than expected profits Thursday.

The grocer reported a third quarter adjusted profit of 46 cents a share that exceeded analysts’ consensus estimate by three cents and said its identical store sales grew by 3.2%. Total sales, including fuel, increased 5.9% to $21.8 billion

A worse than expected 1% decline in November same store sales indicates the holiday season is off to a slow start at Target.

The 1% decline was substantially worse than the low single digit increase the company forecast at the start of the month when it reported a 2.4% increase for October that was toward the low end of guidance. The November weakness suggest traffic trends may be deteriorating at Target as the company said blamed the decline on a decrease in comparable store transactions following that metric’s flat performance in October.

Las Vegas -- Tatyana Designs opened its first Bettie Page store in New York City, in Manhattan’s Bowery neighborhood. The iconic area has recently become a flashpoint for cutting edge, fashion forward designers.

"It's perfect for our brand," noted Tatyana Designs co-CEO Jan Glaser. “This is the perfect place for our first store in NYC."

The new store is the company’s 11th retail location to date.

Atlanta -- Year-over-year retail dollar volume growth on Thanksgiving and Black Friday was healthy at 5.6% as many retailers started the holiday shopping season earlier this year and consumers welcomed the opportunity to find bargains, according to a study by First Data Corp.’s First Data SpendTrend analysis for Black Friday 2012 compared with Black Friday 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.)