Mass Merchant

New York  — DryClean NYC has signed a lease for a fourth location in Upper Manhattan, according to Faith Hope Consolo, chairman, Joseph A. Aquino, executive VP and Arthur Maglio of Douglas Elliman’s Retail Group, who arranged the lease. The new store will open at 708 St. Nicholas Avenue, between 145 and 146th Streets.

This is the fifth lease the Retail Group has arranged in the building. The other four stores include Sugar Hill Medical Plaza, Unity Wines & Spirits, W Dental and Metro PCS.

Walmart chief marketing and merchandising officer Duncan Mac Naughton told investors during an October meeting that the retailer would have the largest share of voice during the holiday season and that was certainly evident during November, according to data released this week from Kantar Media Ad Intelligence and Placed.

Given the overwhelming emphasis on e-commerce, mobile apps and digital initiatives this holiday season, Target offered a trip down memory lane on its website, where it showcased some interesting marketing efforts.

Black Friday came early for Rakuten.com Shopping. The online marketplace saw a huge jump in visits to the site, consumer sales and conversion on and leading up to the biggest shopping day of the year.

Rakuten.com Shopping reported a rise in consumer sales and traffic beginning the Monday before the big sale days, with a spike on Thanksgiving Day and a crescendo at 10 a.m. PST on Black Friday.

Target spent an estimated $28 million on advertising November 3-7, which netted it nearly 12% of retail traffic during Thanksgiving weekend, according to data released this week from Kantar Media Ad Intelligence and Placed.

Deerfield, Ill. -- Walgreen Co. said Wednesday that sales for the first quarter rose 6% to $18.35 billion, from $17.32 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.  

Same-store sales increased 5.5% for the quarter. November sales totaled $6.07 billion, up 4.1% from $5.83 billion a year earlier.

The retailer attributed sales spikes to increased investment in promotional strategies.

Given the origins of Cyber Monday, it should have become irrelevant in the grand scheme of online holiday sales. That’s far from the case though as evidenced by the latest insights from digital measurement firm comScore.

The leading digital measurement firm released data late Tuesday showing Cyber Monday sales increased 18% to more than $1.7 billion to establish a new record for the heaviest online shopping day in history. It was also the second day this season in which online sales surpassed $1 billion which was the case on Black Friday.

Unprecedented shopper traffic was seen at Target on Black Friday, according to president, CEO and chairman, Gregg Steinhafel, who also said the retailer provided exceptional service without offering much insight into sales.