Holiday Sales May Have Jumped 4.9% in Biggest Gain Since 2005 by Lauren Coleman-Lochner at Bloomberg. “That would be the biggest increase since 2005. Customer Growth had previously predicted a 4.1 percent advance.” Read more

 

…Last-Minute Spending Surge Lifts Holiday Shopping Season at Fox Business. “Strong demand for furniture, home furnishings and men’s apparel from the start of November through Christmas Eve pushed U.S. retail sales up 4 percent, higher than the previously expected 3.8 percent, according to data from MasterCard’s holiday spending report.” Read more

 

Stores Tighten Return Policies by Herb Weisbaum at NBC News. “It’s surprising to me that these three big retailers (Costco, Macy’s, Kohl’s) put an end to their unlimited return policy for some or all categories of items,” said Edgar Dworsky, founder of ConsumerWorld.org…The return period for drones is just 14 days at Target, 15 days at Walmart and 30 days at Toys “R” Us.” Read more

 

Amazon patents system to defend drones against hackers, jammers … and arrows by Alan Boyle at GeekWire. “If nothing else, the 33-page application illustrates how many things could possibly go wrong with an autonomous navigation system for unmanned aerial vehicles” Read more

 

Ex-Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Bill Simon on how Trump will impact U.S. businesses at Fox Business 4:17 video

 

BP Buys Woolworths Gas Stations for $1.3 Billion at Fortune. “Hardware wasn’t so great … this is another area of their business that they weren’t really managing well,” said Juliana Roadley, a market analyst at stockbroker Commonwealth Securities.” Read more

 

Target To Expand On Its Silicon Valley-based Tech Showroom Open House by Sam Schaust at Twin Cities Business. “Target has temporarily closed its experimental retail venture Open House in effort to renovate the San Francisco shop to include new features, such as an early-stage products showroom dubbed “The Garage…” Read more

 

Costco May Make it More Expensive to Shop its Stores in 2017 by Brian Sozzi at The Street. “While hesitant to come right out and say it will raise membership dues, Costco executives have given several signals this year that an increase looms large.” Read more

 

**A message from the 2017 Philadelphia Gift Show – See emerging artists and gift, home décor, and color trends! Get a sneak peak in our Product Spotlight, and see our list of unique exhibitors. Sweetening the pot, this all-category gift show runs concurrently with the Philadelphia National Candy, Gift & Gourmet Show. See it all January 6-9, 2017, at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center, in Oaks, PA. Register now | Website

 

For Many Retailers, the Price Isn’t Right by Sara Germano & Khadeeja Safdar at Wall Street Journal. Read more (subscription)

 

Wegmans planned expansion in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood on hold by James Fink at Buffalo Business First. Read more

 

NO HATCH FOR YOU – Parents furious after thousands of the must-have Hatchimal Christmas toys fail to ‘hatch’ by Laura House at Daily Mail. “She was in tears for most of the day yesterday and inconsolable” another wrote. Some said they had tried to ‘rub’ their toys for hours without any sign of ‘hatching’ while others had to manually hatch the toys.” Read more

 

Police seek Amazon Echo data in Bentonville hot tub murder by Nat Levy at GeekWire. Read more

 

…Amazon refuses to let police access US murder suspect’s Echo recordings at The Guardian. Read more

 

Dogs gunned-down by off-duty deputy at Home Depot parking lot after attacking manager by Nancy McCleary at The Fayetteville Observer. Read more

 

Fiery Phones and ‘Hazardous’ Washing Machines Can Still Be Purchased Through Google Shopping by George Sleffo at Ad Age. Read more

 

Amazon sold nine times as many Amazon Echo devices this holiday by Brian Heater at TechCrunch. Read more

 

The 10 Most Marketable Athletes Of 2016 by Kurt Badenhausen at Forbes. Top 10 list

 

Queen Latifah carjacked at Shell station by Jaclyn Schultz at Fox 5. “Queen Latifah became another unfortunate victim of a crime trend plaguing drivers throughout south Fulton County: thieves jump into a driver’s seat while someone is pumping gas, and quickly take off.” Read more

 

Woman makes $1 million buying designer purses online then returning Chinese knock-offs to US department stores by Sarah Dean at Daily Mail. “She ran her elaborate scam for years across America, making fraudulent returns at over 60 department store locations in 12 states…her scheme defrauded department stores out of more than $400,000. She was sentenced on Wednesday to 30 months in prison.” Read more

 

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