Mass Merchant

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.

It’s official: Smart & Final Stores is acquiring 32 Haggen stores in Central and Southern California.

Black Friday may not be what it used to be in the United States, but the tradition has caught on big time across the pond, according to a report by the New York Times.

The BBC reported that shoppers in different parts of the country experienced gridlock, biting, pinching, punching, kicking and merchandise flying through the air as shoppers leapt over barriers to get their hands on heavily discounted items, the report said.

It’s official: Smart & Final Stores is acquiring 32 Haggen stores in Central and Southern California.

Smart & Final has been approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court to purchase 32 store leases – four of which are supplemental to the chain’s previously announced stalking-horse bid –from affiliates of Haggen Holdings for a total cash purchase price of approximately $68 million. Smart & Final plans to convert the 32 stores to its Extra! Store format.

For the second time this year, Target’s e-commerce site crashed due to exceptionally high levels of activity related to a major sales promotion.

The Target site went down the morning of Cyber Monday, Nov. 30. According to reports, the crash was actually a controlled restriction of the site by Target in response to extremely heavy volumes of visitors looking for holiday bargains.

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.

The stereotype of younger consumers spending all their time glued to smartphones may have some validity, at least when it comes to shopping.

Consumer spending across digital channels showed significant year-over-year growth over this year's Thanksgiving weekend.

According to data from ComScore, desktop spending surpassed $1 billion on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Consumers sitting at desktop PCs spent a total of $1.1 billion, up 9% from $1.01 billion in 2014. On Black Friday, desktop spending grew 10% to $1.66 billion from $1.5 billion.