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First Data: Strong holiday shopping boosted December spending growth
Atlanta -- First Data Corp., in its SpendTrend analysis for December, reported that dollar volume grew 6.1%, which marked a significant spike compared to November’s growth of 4.4% as holiday shoppers were out in full force with no time to procrastinate due to the shortened holiday shopping season.
SpendTrend tracks same-store point-of-sale data by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT, closed-loop prepaid cards and checks from nearly four million U.S. merchant locations serviced by First Data.
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Cedar goes long
Last year, Cedar Realty Trust shook off the last vestiges of its recession. Upon taking the reins of Cedar, new president and CEO Bruce Schanzer set in motion a short-term strategic plan in third quarter 2011. The plan was to sell nearly half of the company’s 140 properties owned in 2011 and streamline its property-type and geographic focus, while reducing leverage over the following two years. While the results for 2013 are being tallied now, performance during the first three quarters suggest a very good year of solid results.