Now that the turkey has been gobbled up and the apple pie has been devoured, it is the official start of the holiday shopping season. But in today’s inflationary environment, retailers are bracing for cost-conscious shoppers, and cash-strapped customers are on the hunt for deals. Will this be the most unusual time of the year?…

Retail sales beat market forecasts in October as Americans bought more big-ticket items like cars and furniture, but the outlook for the all-important holiday shopping season looks gloomy, as retail giant Target warned of a consumer demand slump. The Department of Commerce reported on Nov. 16 that retail sales rose 1.3 percent last month, beating…

Retail sales unexpectedly rose 0.3 percent in August, topping the market estimate of 0 percent growth, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s advance estimates (pdf). This is up from the downward revised 0.4 percent drop in July, which was the first decline in seven months. In total, consumers spent $683.3 billion, up 9.1 percent from…

Australian retail sales broke a new record in the June quarter, despite high inflation pushing up prices across industries. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), retail sales volumes climbed 1.4 percent to around $94.3 billion (US$65.6 billion) in the three months to June, marking the third consecutive quarterly increase, following rises of one…

Former Toys R Us CEO Gerald Storch has warned that a consumer recession is on the way and that “weak” retailers will suffer as consumers splash out less on retail goods. In an interview for the Fox Business program “Varney & Co.” on July 12, Storch said that retailers feared they would be unable to get inventory…

Retail sales in the United States fell in May, delivering a downside surprise as analysts generally predicted solid spending by American consumers, whose willingness to keep shopping is key to averting what a growing number of economists warn is a looming recession. The Commerce Department said on June 15 that U.S. retail sales fell 0.3 percent…

BEIJING—Asian stock markets were mixed Wednesday after Wall Street rose and the Federal Reserve’s chairman said it will raise interest rates further if needed to cool inflation. Shanghai and Hong Kong declined. Tokyo and Seoul advanced. Oil prices rose to stay above $110 per barrel. On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 index rose by…

U.S. retail sales saw a strong, forecast-beating rebound in January after a sharp pullback in the prior month, though experts cautioned not to read too much into the numbers as seasonal adjustments to the data played an outsized role. American shoppers appeared to hit the shops in droves in January, with the Commerce Department saying…

U.S. retail sales saw a strong, forecast-beating rebound in January after a sharp pullback in the prior month, although experts cautioned to not read too much into the numbers, as seasonal adjustments to the data played an outsized role. U.S. shoppers appeared to hit the stores in droves in January, with a Feb. 16 Commerce…

Retail sales in the 19 European countries that use the euro came in far weaker than expected in December, the same month that saw inflation in the region spike to a record high, with the biggest retail sales drops concentrated in countries with the strictest COVID-19 measures. Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical agency, reported Friday…