Should it still be called Black Friday when big retailers such as Macy’s, Target, and Best Buy are kickstarting holiday deals well beforehand?
JCPenney rang in the holiday shopping season at 2 pm on Thursday. Within an hour and a half, it had already seen about 2,000 patrons, according to Joe Cardamone, the general manager at its Manhattan Mall location. Cardamone, who’s worked for the company 43 years, says it helps that consumers these days know what they want.
“I think the customers now are more focused on what they really want when they come in, versus years ago when we first started all of this,” he said. “Now they have their list ready to go, and when they walk in, you can tell that they have an agenda.”
To fare well with that amount of foot traffic, Cardamone says stores have to be well-stocked and the check-in, check-out process has to be seamless. He told Cheddar that employees start prepping for the highly-anticipated weekend a month in advance.
The holiday season typically starts on Thanksgiving Day, but this year, 49 percent of shoppers started their holiday shopping as early as September, according to a Nielsen report. However, Nielsen notes that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are still key days for those looking for a bargain.
About 75 percent of U.S. shoppers are planning to spend their money over this weekend and on Cyber Monday, according to Deloitte. The firm reported that shoppers will spend an average of $427 over the Thanksgiving weekend, up from $400 last year. Midwestern buyers will spend the most money this season, shelling out about $517 at the cash register.
The same report highlights that 85 percent of shoppers will be visiting brick-and-mortar stores, and 91 percent will partake in online shopping. This comes at a time when brick-and-mortar stores have been struggling to sell inventory. Recently, J.Crew announced it will be closing 50 of its stores during the 2017 fiscal year.
To compete with e-commerce --which eMarketer projects will jump 11.5 percent this holiday season to $106.97 billion-- the JCPenney leadership is focusing on consumer demands. Cardamone says new CEO Marvin Ellison’s one-on-one with customers has helped.
“That was pretty evident yesterday, how happy the customers were with what we showed them throughout the store,” he said.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
