News

The North Central and Northeast states will be warmer than last year and normal for April 2013 overall with warmer trends arriving mid-month, a positive for spring products. However, an active jet stream will bring frequent showers and storms to much of the eastern half of the nation where precipitation will trend greater than last year which may soften spring category demand, especially for outdoor products. Temperatures in the Southeast and along much of the West Coast will be similar to last year and near normal.

New York -- Consumer spending increased in February by the most in five months as incomes rose and the job market improved.

The Commerce Department said on Friday consumer spending rose 0.7% last month, after an upwardly revised increase from 0.2% to 0.4% in January.  

Wayne, N.J. -- Toys “R” Us on Friday reported that its sales and profits declined in the fourth quarter and the full year. The company also revealed in a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it is withdrawing its plan to go public, blaming “unfavorable market conditions” and its “executive leadership transition” for the decision.  

ROCKVILLE, Md. — Walmart and Target are targeting multi-cultural and health-conscious consumers with their private-label products directed at multicultural and health-conscious consumers.

New York -- An SEC filing on Friday revealed that the total compensation for CVS Caremark Corp. CEO Larry Merlo jumped 44% last year to $20.3 million.

Merlo’s base salary rose slightly but the major increases came from stock and option awards and nonequity incentive-plan compensation.

Walmart held an invite only media event at the San Bruno, Calif. headquarters of its global e-commerce subsidiary and several things were clear as news reports trickled out from the event.

For starters, Walmart is in full blown experimentation mode and probing many different aspects of how to serve digitally empowered customers even as customers are still figuring out how they want to be served.

Seattle -- Amazon.com announced that it has agreed to acquire social site Goodreads, an online book recommendation community that has more than 16 millions around the globe. The financial terms of the deal, which enhances Amazon's already significant clout in the book publishing world, were not disclosed.

WAYNE, N.J. — Toys“R”Us reported that sales for the the fourth quarter decreased $155 million to $5.8 billion and that net earnings fell to $239 million from $343 million in the prior year.