7 Reasons To Be Extremely Optimistic About Retail

There are ample reasons to be optimistic about where the economy is headed, if you look past the near-term wobbliness and pay close attention to the data that have been trickling in lately. It’s reasonable to think that by the 2021 holiday season, the long-predicted Biden boom will really be roaring, and the economic pain […]

5 Signs That Retail Will Be OK

The industry took a beating last year. Challenges remain, but here are a few indications of retailers’ strength. Last year was a challenge like no other for the retail industry. COVID-19 upended people’s existence worldwide, threatening human life and undermining the global economy. Job and wage losses took a toll. Even those able to stay […]

Revenge Shopping: What’s In Store For The U.S.

No less an oracle than Anna Wintour herself has declared that luxury goods sales and travel will become hot commodities once again due to the pent-up demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.  “’People have been locked up for a long time and they are going to want to spend. They are going to want […]

Tractor Supply is Winning Over Rural America

Thanks to several factors in and out of its control, Tractor Supply last week reported that first quarter net sales rose 42.5% to $2.79 billion. E-commerce sales “experienced triple-digit percentage growth for the fourth consecutive quarter,” according to a company press release. Store comps rose 38.6% (well above the 4.3% increase in the year-ago quarter), […]

Did Retailers Miss the Signs?

As suburban populations grew over the past decade, retailers consistently ignored the trend in favor of cities. In 2020, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States sparked much talk of an “urban exodus” in which white-collar workers – freed from being tethered to physical offices by the rise of permanent work-from-home arrangements […]

JOANN Crafts A Comeback!

Riding The Etsy Boom To An IPO When Kimberly Hamlin decided to start selling high-end masks to brides, grooms and the rest of their bridal parties on Etsy last summer, she headed straight to the JOANN store around the corner from her house in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to thumb through bolts of lace, cotton and […]

The Remote Work “Revolution” May Be Overblown

One year after the Covid-19 pandemic forced millions of workers to start clocking in from home, many companies are thinking about how to bring their employees back into the office. A number of firms think the past 12 months have proven the merits of remote work, and have pledged more flexible schedules. But increasingly, there […]

Retail Predictions for 2021

The pandemic, and recovery from it, will likely define the year as consumers look to refresh their wardrobes and retailers hold on to new practices that worked, analysts say. After a year that unfolded unlike anybody’s predictions, the retail industry and its analysts are trying to game out what 2021 could look like as COVID-19 […]

Properties Near Aldi Perform Better

If you’re thinking about investing in a rental property, you might want to look at buying near an ALDI, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ annual 2020 Grocery Store Wars analysis. Properties near an ALDI had an average gross flipping ROI of 58 percent, compared to properties near a Whole Foods, which had an average gross […]