Friday, February 8, 2013
How much will Kingstowne residents spend this holiday? The National Retail Federation's survey shows that people won't pay the big bucks to express their love this year.
A National Retail Federation (NRF) survey — conducted by BIGinsight — revealed only a slight increase in expected sales this year with the average person planning to spend $130.97 on candy, cards, gifts and more, up from $126.03 last year, according to a recent news release. Total spending will reach an estimated $18.6 billion. “Valentine’s Day remains one of the biggest gift-giving holidays of the year, and although consumers will be conscientious with their spending, it’s great to see that millions of Americans are still looking forward to celebrating with their loved ones,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay in a statement. The survey also showed that about 51 percent of gift givers will buy candy, spending a total of $1.6 billion …
Sunday, November 18, 2012
A few tips on beating the traffic while holiday shopping during Black Friday weekend.
This year, about 147 million people plan to go shopping during the Black Friday weekend, according to a recent National Retail Federation survey. The survey shows a slight decrease from last year’s 152 million who planned to shop during the same weekend. Specifically, NRF’s survey shows that 71 million said they would shop and another 76 million said they would wait and see what retailers have in-store that weekend. “Though the Black Friday tradition is here to stay, there’s no question that it has changed in recent years; already there is a tremendous amount of excitement and anticipation surrounding retailers’ Thanksgiving and Black Friday promotions,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. With that said, shopaholics everywhere are …
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Witches, princesses and Big Bird are popular nationally; local kids are looking for creepy, gory costumes.
This year, trick-or-treaters, pampered (and/or tortured) pets and partygoers all over the U.S. will dress up in spooky, adorable, cute or funny costumes and hit the town for Halloween. Some local kids are looking for creepier costumes this year, said Harold Grabes, general manager of the Party City on Frontier Drive. “This season, they’re going more gory and haunted,” Grabes said. “For every kid that asks for something like Luigi, I get about ten more asking for the Grim Reaper.” Ryan Whalen, a sales representative at Target on Richmond Highway, said he has received a lot of calls from people who are interested in Avengers-related costumes for their children. However, Whalen said Target does stock some of their other commonly popular …
