Retail

Bloomberg America’s biggest supermarket chain is seeing signs that US shoppers are getting nervous about the future. “It’s fascinating right now from a customer standpoint. They feel incredibly good about the economy but very nervous about where things are headed,’’ Kroger Co Chief Executive Officer Rodney McMullen said in an onstage interview at the National Retail Federation’s annual trade show ...

Bloomberg Target Corp set a high bar for rival retailers with strong holiday sales, bolstering the industry’s hope that this will be America’s best shopping season in more than a decade. Target’s comparable sales grew 5.7 percent in the November-December period, beating some analysts’ estimates. It also maintained its full-year sales and earnings forecasts. Target went all out over the ...

Bloomberg Calvin Klein is closing its Madison Avenue flagship store in New York this spring as the fashion label shakes up its strategy. The apparel maker owned by PVH Corp said it would begin using a “digital-first” approach and reorganise its North American division, combining operations in sportswear and jeans. Its higher-end Calvin Klein 205W39NYC business will get a makeover ...

Bloomberg In an increasingly tough UK retail environment where the looming threat of Brexit has ground down consumer confidence, the holiday-shopping season was all about survival of the fittest. Tesco Plc, the country’s biggest retailer, weathered brutal price pressure and a decline in shopper visits better than smaller rivals, posting Christmas sales that beat expectations. But other stores more exposed ...

Bloomberg UK bakery chain Greggs Plc provided some relief to the country’s beleaguered shopping districts with a bullish update on sales performance as year-end demand for its festive pastries surged. The shares rose as much as 7.7 percent to a record as the company raised its outlook for full-year adjusted pretax profit to at least 88 million pounds ($112 million), ...

Bloomberg J Sainsbury Plc’s Christmas sales fell more than analysts expected as price-conscious UK shoppers turned to discounters for their turkey and stocking stuffers. The supermarket chain became the second of the big four UK grocers to highlight consumer unease over the holiday season, with Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc warning that the political stalemate over Brexit was making shoppers rein ...

Bloomberg Stephen Wall’s restaurant chain Pho is the kind of tenant that mall landlords would love to attract. The Vietnamese menu is right on trend, the business is expanding and, even better, it has a track record of success in shopping centres. Yet he thinks that even restaurants like his won’t be the savior of malls suffering from the rise ...

Bloomberg Sears Holdings Corp is preparing for the potential that this year will be its last. The storied retailer started laying the groundwork for a liquidation after Chairman Eddie Lampert’s bid to buy several hundred stores out of bankruptcy fell short of bankers’ qualifications, people with knowledge of the matter said. Sears representatives summoned liquidation firms and other advisers to ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc surpassed Microsoft Corp to become the world’s largest public company on Monday, in the latest example of the list of Wall Street’s biggest names being reordered. Shares of the e-commerce company rose 3.4 percent, a rally that gave it a market capitalisation of $797 billion, according to Bloomberg data. While this is down from Amazon’s record market ...

Bloomberg Singapore state investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte is exploring options for its stake in global retailer AS Watson Group, including a partial sale, people with knowledge of the matter said. Temasek is working with an adviser to consider possibilities for its 25 percent holding in AS Watson after receiving some preliminary interest, according to the people, who asked not ...