Foot traffic at malls and stores across the U.S. this past holiday weekend wasn’t as strong as last year, a retail tracking firm said Saturday, while a separate report suggested more consumers opted to shop online. Preliminary data tracking shoppers’ visits to physical stores Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday showed a year-over-year decline of 1
Business
There’s something about that smell, that new car smell, said Jeff Diesing a sales consultant at Chelsea Chevrolet Buick outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan. To people shopping for a new car, it’s almost like they’re sniffing the turkey as it cooks in the oven on Thanksgiving Day, he said. “It’s very distinctive and, in general,
Corporate scandals can be costly to investors in the immediate term, but employees who blow the whistle on wrongdoing help their companies become more profitable in the long run, according to a new study. In a detailed analysis written by Kyle Welch of George Washington University and Stephen Stubben of the University of Utah, companies
Shoppers pulled out their phones and shopped on Thanksgiving Day to spend more than they ever have before, potentially stealing some of Black Friday’s thunder. Consumers in the U.S. had spent $1.75 billion online by 5 p.m. ET Thursday, up more than 28 percent from a year ago, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks transactions
Macy’s CEO says the department store chain is prepared should additional tariffs on Chinese goods go into effect next year. “The first two tranches of tariffs have had very limited effects so far on the products we’re offering…” Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette told CNBC from inside the retailer’s flagship Herald Square location on Black Friday.
On the biggest shopping day of the year, U.K.-based trade union GMB is organizing a protest against Amazon for what it calls “inhuman” conditions for warehouse workers. Amazon has been under a microscope recently as it gets ready to bring 25,000 jobs to two new “headquarters” locations in Long Island City, NY and Arlington, Va.
Apple is planning to help its wireless carrier partners subsidize the costs of cutting the iPhone XR price in Japan, The Wall Street Journal said on Thursday. It’s the latest signal the iPhone XR isn’t selling as well as expected. Earlier this month, Nikkei reported that Apple had asked suppliers to cancel plans to boost
For Mackenzi Farquer, Small Business Saturday is a big deal. The owner of Queens, New York-based Lockwood gift shop, which sells kitchenware, clothing and paper goods, says often there’s barely room to stand in her locations on the retail holiday, sandwiched in between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. “It’s our busiest day of the year,”
Shoppers weren’t afraid to pull out their smartphones to shop on Thanksgiving, to the tune of $1 billion. Sales online Thanksgiving Day totaled $3.7 billion, up 28 percent from a year ago, Adobe Analytics said in a report. That makes Thursday the fastest-growing day for e-commerce sales in history, added the firm, which tracks transactions
Autodesk this week agreed to buy construction software company PlanGrid for $875 million. The San Francisco-based start-up previously raised $69 million in funding from investors including YCombinator, Sequoia Capital and Tenaya Capital. PlanGrid enables real-time construction tracking for contractors and and architects. Autodesk “makes software for people who make things.” Beijing-based robotics company Geek+ completed
Lowe’s on Friday told shoppers its website was “down for maintenance” on one of the biggest holidays of the year. Tweet The retailer told shoppers on Twitter the website would be available soon. Some frustrated shoppers said they were were going to rivals like Sears or Home Depot. Tweet Tweet Lowe’s was not the only
The inside of Sears at the Galleria White Plains mall on Black Friday looked mostly the same as it has for the past few years. Yellow tags highlighted doorbuster sales. Rows of washers and dryers stood gleaming. Sparkling Christmas ornaments were on display. But the glaring omission at 7:00 a.m., an hour after opening, were
European stocks are set to open slightly higher Friday morning, as investors cautiously managed hopes for progress in Brexit negotiations. The FTSE 100 is seen little changed from the previous session at 6,963, the CAC is expected to open up around 4 points at 4,942 while the DAX is poised to start 18 points higher
Expect a photo opportunity, a “mock deal,” and temporary market relief from the much-touted meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G-20 meeting, an economist said on Friday. “We don’t think this deal will be engineering a long-term truce between the two countries,” Bo Zhuang, chief economist and
When its Thanksgiving Day Parade ends, the real work begins for Macy’s. The department store chain has much to prove during the holidays if it wants to keep the momentum, generated by its latest turnaround plans, going strong. Macy’s shares had rallied more than 80 percent over a 12-month period heading into its third-quarter earnings
An Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund is suing Goldman Sachs over an alleged conspiracy involving Malaysia’s 1MDB fund. International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) and its subsidiary Aabar Investments filed a lawsuit against the investment bank at New York state court on Wednesday. The court summons states that the firms are seeking “damages and other appropriate
On a stage in front of a few hundred people, nervous entrepreneurs prepare to pitch their business ideas to a panel of five “sharks” — seasoned investors and veterans of Middle East business — in hopes of getting funding. “I’m looking for something disruptive in the marketplace,” Ganesh Iyer, one of the sharks and a
First it was Vine, then Yik Yak, then HQ Trivia: Mobile apps that shot up in downloads and took the digital world by storm. Almost just as suddenly, they all fell from public favor and off the top charts. TikTok, the latest app to skyrocket in popularity, recently unseated Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat as the
Iconic off-road automaker Land Rover is sprucing up a model that has become one of hottest sellers in the rapidly growing luxury compact sport utility vehicle segment. When the Range Rover Evoque makes its global debut on Thursday, it will be the first time the popular and relatively affordable vehicle has been refreshed since 2015.
GameStop announced Wednesday it agreed to sell its Spring Mobile business for $700 million. The stock spiked 15 percent on the news. Prime Communications, L.P. will buy Spring Mobile, which owns and operates 1,289 AT&T wireless stores, according to a press release announcing the news. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter
Amazon bought PillPack, an internet pharmacy start-up, earlier this year, leading to speculation that the e-retailer will soon start selling prescription drugs on its marketplace. Before that happens, Amazon may be preparing to provide the service to its own employees. PillPack recently applied for a string of new pharmacy licenses, primarily to ship drugs to
More retailers will be using deep discounts to lure shoppers into stores this holiday season. It’s good news for consumers, but could mean bad news for businesses. Roughly 63 percent of merchandise at department stores like Macy’s and Lord & Taylor will be discounted this year, up from 60 percent last year, according to a
When Sarah Guinn and her family walked into terminal three at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport Wednesday morning, she was pleasantly surprised. “It is pretty calm,” said Guinn, who was flying to Denver for Thanksgiving. “We got here earlier than we needed to I think. You don’t want to get stuck, we got stuck once so we
Autodesk shares jumped as much as 13 percent on Wednesday after the maker of design software reported better-than-expected quarterly results. The stock climbed $12.41 to $135.46 as of mid-afternoon after reaching as high as $139.40. Even with today’s rally, the shares are down more than 12 percent since the end of August amid a broader
JP Morgan has cut its outlook for oil, predicting that Brent crude prices will average $73 a barrel in 2019 — down from the investment bank’s previous forecast of $83.50 a barrel. Scott Darling, head of Asia-Pacific oil and gas at JP Morgan told CNBC that the investment bank recently revised its outlook in part
Riot Blockchain, the cryptocurrency company whose stock skyrocketed after changing its name, revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission subpoena and investigation are “still ongoing,” according to its most recent quarterly filing. The company had previously disclosed that the subpoena received on April 9 was “pursuant to a formal order of investigation,” according to its
If Booster Fuels CEO Frank Mycroft has his way, gas stations will one day be obsolete. His start-up, founded in 2014, is filling up cars in parking lots, so drivers don’t have to wait in lines or make extra trips. Booster is now operating across twenty U.S. cities, and in the parking lots of at
Apple is snapping. The stock, once a safe haven from market turmoil, is more than 20 percent below all-time highs and clinging to modest year-to-date gains. The stock has shed more than a $100 billion of its historic $1 trillion market valuation. It’s on pace for its eighth straight week of declines and its worst
Facebook is appealing a £500,000 ($639,255.40) fine from the U.K.’s privacy watchdog which claims the company failed to protect the privacy of at least 1 million U.K. users, the Financial Times first reported. Facebook’s appeal is based on the fact that the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office found no evidence British data was shared with Cambridge
Gap Inc. is considering shutting hundreds of its namesake stores at shopping malls as sales at the Gap brand continue to slide. The retailer said Tuesday evening that it still has 775 Gap-branded stores globally, in addition to those under the Old Navy, Banana Republic and Athleta banners. Gap Inc. has more than 3,000 stores