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Thrifty customers boost Walmart as retail market share battles loom

Feb 20, 2024
The giant chain reported strong quarterly sales. But for the first time in two years, shoppers spent less per visit.
Walmart's pricing attracts shoppers who feel strain on their budgets. The retail industry overall could feel strain on its margins.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Rents for New York retail space haven’t caught up to pre-pandemic highs

Jan 23, 2024
Retail rents in Manhattan in late 2023 were still 20% to 30% below 2019 levels, thanks in part to fewer tourists and office workers.
"Some of the retail corridors like Fifth Avenue and Times Square have a little bit more vacancy than they did," said Keith DeCoster of the Real Estate Board of New York.
Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Apparel sales might catch a chill as winter nears

Sep 28, 2023
Nike reported disappointing earnings, weakening the outlook for clothing sales — which have a lot to do with the year-end shopping season.
Since clothing isn't as essential for most households as food and gasoline, sales may soften.
Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

Consumers have kept the economy humming. How long can they keep it up?

Dec 20, 2022
Although they're contending with inflation and economic uncertainty, they continue to rack up debt and burn through their savings.
With consumers racking up debt and burning through savings, economists expect a pullback in spending.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Did department stores train people to be difficult customers?

Aug 13, 2021
Amanda Mull, a staff writer at The Atlantic, argues that department stores had a hand in building class consciousness.
Customers shop at Macys department store in New York on Black Friday, Nov. 27, 2020.
Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images

China's professional shoppers

Apr 4, 2019
They're making a living ... undercover.
People walk between buildings at a shopping mall in Beijing on October 18, 2018.
Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images