Tausi Insider

A Walmart store in Washington, on Nov. 2. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images Walmart Inc WMT-N on Tuesday lifted its annual sales and profit forecast as demand for groceries holds up despite higher prices, while discounts on clothing and electronics helped it cut back excess inventories ahead of the busy holiday season. The company also announced a new $20-billion share buyback plan, sending its shares as much as up 7 per cent in morning trading to a six-month high of $148.40. Its results boosted stocks of other major retailers, including Target Corp, Costco and Macy’s Inc. Target reports results on Wednesday. Amid persistent inflation, investors have been nervously eyeing how consumer spending pans out during the crucial holiday season, when retailers make more than a third of their annual profits. “In this period of macroeconomic uncertainty … we are well equipped to continue gaining market share in an environment where consumers need to stretch their dollars further,” Chief Finan...

People walk walk past Hudson’s Bay’s interactive, augmented reality Christmas display, at their Downtown Toronto location, on Nov. 16. Many retailers overestimated consumer demand and were caught off guard by the impact of what turned out to be soaring prices this year on consumers. Christopher Katsarov/Tausi Insider Excess inventory and fears of a looming recession are leading retailers to offer bigger and longer-than-usual Black Friday deals across North America. After struggling to keep the shelves stocked because of global supply chain snags during last year’s holiday season, the retail industry has swung to the other extreme, with warehouses now piled high with merchandise. And companies are under pressure to draw down on that inventory before the end of the holiday season, when consumer malaise is likely to set in amid high inflation and a slowing economy, said Kostya Polyakov, national industry leader for consumer and retail at consultancy KPMG. “Retailers really need this hol...

People walk through Toronto's Yorkdale Mall in search of Black Friday deals, on Nov. 26, 2021. Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press Annie Titheridge’s plan is to arrive at the mall before it opens, buy gifts for everyone on her list and beat the afternoon rush-hour traffic home. “My husband and daughter think I’m mad going shopping on Black Friday,” said Titheridge, who will drive from King City north of Toronto to the Yorkdale Shopping Centre for the day. “It does get absolutely crowded but I still prefer to shop in stores,” she said. “I prefer to touch and feel products before buying.” The biggest shopping event of the year arrives Friday, a sales bonanza heralded by a flurry of promotional e-mails, online ads and paper flyers. Black Friday has evolved in recent years from a one-day event – when shoppers lined up overnight outside big box stores to snag doorcrasher deals – into an entire season of sales. “It’s less about a single day and more about a prolonged period,” said Eric Mo...

People shop for Black Friday deals in Pico Rivera, Calif., on Nov. 25. FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images Cautious shoppers hunted for the best deals at stores and online as retailers offered new Black Friday discounts to entice consumers eager to start buying holiday gifts but weighed down by inflation. Due to elevated prices for food, rent, gasoline and other essentials, many people were being more selective, reluctant to spend unless there was a big sale. Some were dipping more into savings, turning to “buy now, pay later” services that allow payment in installments, or running up their credit cards at a time when the Federal Reserve is hiking rates to cool the U.S. economy. Sheila Diggs, 55, went to a Walmart in Mount Airy, Maryland early Friday looking for a deal on a coffee maker. To save money this year, she said the adults in her family are drawing names and selecting one person to shop for. “Everything’s going up but your paycheck,” said Diggs, who manages medical records at...

Erin Bury, and husband, Kevin Oulds, founders of Wilful, celebrate the Holidays with staff at Founders Restaurant & Cocktail Bar in Toronto on Dec. 1. Peter Power/Tausi Insider Since Willful went fully remote earlier this year, its twice-annual retreats are central to maintaining the company’s culture, says co-founder and chief executive officer, Erin Bury. Willful’s latest gathering, a three-day event that included the Toronto-based estate-planning company’s holiday party on Dec. 1, was no exception. It was a chance for staff to reconnect and for recent hires to meet their colleagues in person for the first time. While a full social schedule will be tiring for some not used to so much in-person time, Ms. Bury says her 20-member team was eager for the in-person holiday gathering. “People miss that in-person interaction,” says Ms. Bury, who surveyed the team in advance to get a sense of what kind of party staff wanted. The company settled on dinner, followed by karaoke and music t...

Screenshot : Google With less than a week to go before Christmas, the kids are probably off from school, high on sugar, and getting antsy for presents, or whatever your family does to celebrate the holidays. At this point, you may be running low on cash and out of options for keeping them entertained while you’re still working. If that’s the case, Google’s Santa Tracker website has all kinds of games and activities to hold their attention—including several that are educational. Here’s what to know. How to access free holiday games and activities for kids Before switching over to tracking Santa on Christmas Eve, the site offers an array of holiday-themed games and activities. They’ll come up as you scroll through the site; if you want to pull up a particular feature, you may be able to find it faster through the Family Guide . Some of the activities available on the site include: Coding games : Kids (or adults) can learn the basics of how to code by playing Code Boogie or Code Lab...

Several surveys released this holiday season indicate shoppers are willing to gift second-hand items. recep-bg/iStockPhoto / Getty Images At a mug swap in Guelph, Ont., in early December, plenty of people came out to hunt down the right used mug for those on their Christmas list: One mother and daughter took home 10 to give as presents. Those who attended were looking for gifts that didn’t stress their bank accounts, says organizer Steph Clarke of the Guelph Tool Library, which held the event. Ms. Clarke believes most people have no qualms about gifting things that were previously used. “It’s becoming more about the intent or the spirit of the gift,” she said. “If you find something that’s perfect for your loved one, it doesn’t matter as much if it’s second hand.” With soaring inflation and higher interest rates depleting household budgets this holiday season, there are signs that Canadians are increasingly turning to second-hand items as gifts. A practice once deemed uncouth is beco...

U.S. retail sales rose 7.6% between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24, which encompasses a majority of the holiday season, as steep discounts lured deal-hungry consumers, a Mastercard report showed on Monday. The increase is higher than the 7.1% growth Mastercard had forecast in September, when it anticipated consumers would pull purchases to October in the hunt for early deals. However, this year’s holiday retail sales growth is less than the 8.5% increase last year as decades-high inflation, rising interest rates and the threat of a recession turned consumers cautious. Retailers including Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc in the United States offered large discounts during the holiday season to get rid of excess stock and bring back inventories to normal levels. That led to strong demand for everything from toys to electronics during the five-day-long period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. However, sales of electronics dropped 5.3% over the broader roughly two-month period, according to the ...