Apparel

Bridgeport Landing Development, a subsidiary of The RCI Group announced that Connecticut’s first Bass Pro Shops has opened at Steelpointe Harbor located in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The Steelpointe Harbor Bass Pro Shops is a 150,000 sq. ft. store featuring Uncle Bucks Fish Bowl and Grill restaurant, Black Widow Billiards™ parlor complete with two tournament pool tables, a bowling alley with 12 full lanes, an archery range and aquarium.

When it comes to return policies, Nordstrom and Forever 21 couldn’t be further apart.

At least that’s according to an annual survey of return policies by GOBankingRates.com. The study rated Nordstrom as offering the best return policies of 2015, with Forever 21 offering the worst.

“Return policies should be a big consideration for holiday shoppers — two-thirds of people return at least one holiday gift,” said Elyssa Kirkham, lead reporter on the GOBankingRates study.

How will retailers fare in 2016? Very well, according to experienced market watchers.

“We expect core retail sales to grow 5.3% in 2016,” says Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics for Moody’s Analytics, a research firm based in West Chester, Pa. (Core retail sales exclude volatile revenues from auto sales and gas stations.)

That is notably faster than the 4.2% rate anticipated when 2015 sales are finally tallied. The 2015 experience was, again, slightly better than that the 3.9% growth of 2014.

Apparel specialty retailers experienced a sales pick up over Black Friday weekend, while department-store and electronics revenue was roughly flat, Reuters reported.

Online sales growth was in the double digits over the weekend, beating MasterCard's forecast for about an 8% increase.

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Huge numbers of shoppers feasted on deals over Thanksgiving weekend, but how and when Americans did so has forever changed, as online activity exceeded store visits.

Digital media company Mashable and Visa are doing a little mashing of their own to launch a new online retail entity.

When it comes to return policies, Nordstrom and Forever 21 couldn’t be further apart.

The parent company of Zales and Jared is looking forward to a happy holiday after producing third quarter results that met the company’s growth targets.