Content about Christmas music

By Bruce Jones

The 2012 holiday shopping season featured stores opening earlier on Thanksgiving, extended hours shopping marathons, and, according to the National Retail Federation, an additional 585,000 to 625,000 seasonal retail workers.

In what turned out to be one of the stranger holiday seasons in recent memory retailers fought through a range of unconventional headwinds to deliver an uneven performance.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Target is teaming up with the United Way for the 22nd consecutive year to bring families in need some holiday cheer.

Target stores across the country will donate more than $200,000 worth of holiday trees to the charitable organization, as part of the Target Share-a-Tree Program. The United Way and its volunteers will distribute the trees to families in need, shelters, community centers and childcare programs.

A 4.1% third quarter same store sales decline and $105 million loss hasn’t diminished holiday spirits at Toys "R" Us.

The company reported the sales decline for the period ended October 27 late Friday and attributed a portion of the dip in same store sales to a less promotional stance and an earlier start to its layaway program. The layaway program was launched on September, seven weeks before the end of the third quarter, but sales related to items placed in layaway can not be recognized until customers pick up their orders.

NEW YORK — Last minute holiday shoppers will have some help from Macy’s this year, as the retailer plans keep most of its stores open 48 hours straight the weekend before Christmas, from 7 a.m. Friday, December 21 through 7 a.m. Sunday, December 23.

The 48-hour shopping marathon coincides with Macy’s final scheduled One-Day Sale of the year, which concludes at 7 a.m. Sunday, December 23. While the sale ends Sunday morning, 57 stores will remain open 24 hours or offer extended late hours until close on Christmas Eve.

WILMINGTON, Del. — The retail industry is awash with forecasts and projections during the holidays, but a near real-time indicator from Chase reveals how shoppers are actually behaving.

Forty participants in the annual OfficeMax ElfYourself campaign are due to join in next week’s McDonald’s Thanksgiving Parade in Chicago.

The elves will escort a candy train float along the parade route expected to be attended by 500,000 people and millions of television viewers. While on the parade route, the elves will distribute winter survival kits featuring cold-weather essentials such as lip balm, hand warmers and hot chocolate mix, and also invite spectators to enjoy OfficeMax's online and in-store deals this holiday season.

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Social media will influence how people plan to shop this holiday season nearly as much as word-of-mouth and store advertisements, according to a survey conducted by ConsumerSearch.com, part of the About Group.

New York – Gap is feeling the love this holiday season.

CHICAGO — Black Friday will be the single biggest sales and foot traffic day of this holiday season, followed by Saturday, Dec. 22, according to ShopperTrak, the world’s largest counter and analyzer of retail foot traffic. With the greatest possible number of shopping days — 32 — lying between Black Friday and Christmas this year, ShopperTrak predicts that national retail sales will rise 3.3% (over last year) during the peak holiday shopping months of November and December; retail foot traffic will increase 2.8%.

WHITING, Ind. — A survey of 2,339 shoppers by CouponCabin.com found that 34% are at least somewhat likely to purchase items on layaway this holiday season.
 
The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, also found that 9% are very likely to use layaway; 29% said maybe.

When asked what they believe are the benefits to using a layaway program for holiday shopping, U.S. adults said the following:

• 54% said layaway helps them to buy larger items that they couldn't afford to buy all at once;

RICHMOND, Va. — An annual seasonal hiring survey released Thursday by Snagajob indicates that more holiday jobs will be available this year than have been expected in any previous season in the study’s five-year history.  


The survey of more than 1,000 hourly hiring managers with responsibility for seasonal hiring, conducted by IPSOS Public Affairs for Snagajob, included the following highlights: