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In a statement, Costco said it intends to appeal the ruling. "This was not a case about counterfeiting in the common understanding of that word -- Costco was not selling imitation Tiffany & Co. rings," it said. Tiffany first filed a complaint against Costco in U.S. District Court in New York in 2013, saying it learned from a customer that Costco was selling "Tiffany" rings. "Unbeknowst to Tiffany, Costco had apparently been selling different styles of rings for many years that it has falsely identified on in-store signage as 'Tiffany,'" the complaint said. "There are now hundreds if not thousands...

If the mall killed Main Street, then this must be Main Street’s moment for schadenfreude. Real Estate Investment Trust stocks have dropped 18% in the past year, Bloomberg recently reported, and while mall executives would prefer to see the current decline as a transformative period rather than a death knell, that may be wishful thinking. Not all malls are created equal, of course. A-class malls are thriving, due to a premier selection of retail and restaurant tenants that successfully target the affluent communities they serve. However, B and C-class malls are struggling to find customers and keep tenants, as anchor...

The drought has been lifted, for almost half a decade, the long-standing 22 Lone Rifle ammunition is finally behind us. Wal-Mart announced this internally that any and all restrictions on purchasing 22 ammo in bulk have been removed. Up until about a year ago, 22LR was reasonably difficult to find in both bulk and inexpensively. Shared across Facebook and other social media, the new policy was announced to managers, loss prevention, and sales clerks. The new policy is a welcome change, especially for this in more rural areas where Wal-Mart was the major store, if not only, purveyors of ammunition....

Quitting finance to focus on marijuana sounds like it’s something that involves finding yourself by surfing and living in a beach hut in California. But with momentum building for the legalization of cannabis in the U.S. – 29 states and the District of Columbia have laws legalized marijuana in some form – finance professionals are increasingly viewing it as a big business opportunity. The number of jobs that the cannabis industry is creating continues to increase. New Frontier Data, a research and analytics firm, projects that the legal cannabis market will create more than 250m jobs by 2020 – more...

Bergdorf Goodman. Tiffany & Company. Louis Vuitton. Fifth Avenue in Manhattan is to shopping what Broadway is to theater, defined by the marquee names that for decades have occupied some of New York City’s most prized real estate. But lately, the avenue’s glittery window displays have been changing more quickly, as retailers have streamed in and out. Tourism has slowed while online shopping has sped up, making it harder for companies to justify the cavernous spaces and sky-high rents along the shopping strip.

Male make-up counters could become a reality within five years, the UK boss of L'Oreal has said, as it is no longer a taboo for the "selfie generation". In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Vismay Sharma, the cosmetics giant's UK managing director, said that demand for make-up among men was growing fast.

Revitalizing American manufacturing has been a hot topic for some time, gaining prominence as a talking point in last year’s election. Donald Trump’s victory led many to speculate about the future of manufacturing in the U.S., particularly whether it’s possible to bring manufacturing back to America. The latest piece of advice on this topic comes from a rather surprising source: Walmart. The retail giant recently convened a meeting of representatives from governments, businesses and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to present a Policy Roadmap to Renew U.S. Manufacturing. “As we’ve worked over the last four years alongside our suppliers toward our goal...

Some people don’t know that two dollar bills are real, so when Mike Bolesta used over 50 of them to make a purchase at a Best Buy store, an encounter with the police and Secret Service ensued. VIDEO

Walmart Inc. (WMT) met with government and business leaders in Washington on Wednesday to unveil a plan to spur growth in domestic manufacturing efforts that company executives say will create an estimated 1.5 million new jobs in the United States. The meeting included a discussion with key individuals on both sides of the aisle about the biggest challenges the U.S. manufacturing sector currently faces. Using an analysis by the Boston Consulting Group and Walmart sourcing data, the company crafted a 10-point plan to “recapture” an estimated $300 billion in imported consumer goods, stoking job growth in the process. “As we’ve...

Five years ago Best Buy Co. looked like a retail dinosaur, another victim of e-commerce juggernaut Amazon.com and other online sellers. The big-box electronics chain was suffering dwindling sales and profits due in good part to “showrooming,” when shoppers would come in to a Best Buy store to check out televisions, computers and other items in person, and then buy them at cheaper prices at Amazon or elsewhere online. Best Buy also was struggling with executive turmoil and facing a buyout threat from a major stockholder. The chain in 2012 named a new chief executive, Hubert Joly, but the Frenchman...

Walmart was apologizing on Monday after an appalling description of a product by a third-party vendor made its way onto the retail giant’s website. The retailer was slammed early Monday after the color of a netting weave cap — used as a protective layer between a person’s hair and sewn-in hair extensions — on its site was described as the color “N— Brown.” “Hey @Walmart what are you doing,” Twitter user Kwani Lunis tweeted with a screenshot of the problematic product listing. New York Times best-selling author Roxane Gay condemned the retail chain, tweeting that dropping the N-bomb on their...

Children's clothing seller Gymboree Corp. is closing 350 stores as its works to restructure in bankruptcy. The San Francisco-based company said Tuesday that it's mostly closing Gymboree and Crazy 8 stores. It also operates Janie and Jack stores. The company will have more than 900 locations after the stores are shut down. Gymboree filed for bankruptcy protection in June. Traditional retailers have been struggling to deal with strong competition from online companies and slowing mall traffic.

It turns out that all Americans, regardless of income, spend a large percentage of their income on what economists categorize as luxuries. People who make the most money spend the biggest chunk of their incomes on luxury goods, but even the poorest households spend a significant amount on luxuries, according to an analysis released recently by Deutsche Bank Research. The wealthiest families (the top fifth of earners) spend around 65% of their incomes on luxury goods and 35% on necessities, according to the study, which looked at spending habits between 1984 and 2014. Middle-income households weren’t far behind: They spend...

The potential energy of ecommerce has yet to be fully unlocked. Retail jobs are hemorrhaging throughout the United States. Credit Suisse predicts that 8,000 retail stores will close in 2017. Radioshack is closing 1,430 stores, Payless Shoes is closing 800 stores and Sears is closing 265 stores. According to the U.S. Census reported by The New York Times, department stores have lost 448,000 jobs in the last 15 years, offset by a net gain of 645,000 net jobs in the retail sector in that time, due to natural economic growth. Warehouse clubs (which presumably includes Wal-Mart as well its Sam’s...

Recent big acquisition news from Walmart and Amazon, ranked #1 and #3 in the Forbes list of the world’s largest retailers, confirmed rumors circulating since at least April that Walmart had its eye on online men’s fashion retailer Bonobos and Amazon was flirting with the idea of buying high-end grocer Whole Foods. While the deals differ markedly in size and scale, $310 million for Bonobos and $13.7 billion for Whole Foods, both represent a step beyond Walmart’s and Amazon’s mass-market roots and into the premium market where luxury consumers live. It’s a strategy that mid-market department store retail Hudson Bay...

The owner of the Net-a-Porter luxury fashion website is to hire at least 100 more IT experts over the next two years as it shrugs off the impact of the Brexit vote to open a tech hub in the UK. Designed by Nicholas Grimshaw, the architect behind the Eden Project domes in Cornwall, the hub, in west London’s White City, can house up to 650 IT experts. That is an increase from the 500 employed in the UK at present. The new building brings together the British teams from Yoox, the Italian luxury sales site, and Net-a-Porter, the group founded...

I haven't been inside a Sears store for more than 10 years, until Thursday, June 22. And, wow, did I learn a lot. Mainly, I came away with a better understanding of why Sears Holdings Corp. is closing an additional 20 stores on top of the 245 it already planned to shutter. And why it has failed to turn a profit in 29 out of the last 37 quarters and seen same-store sales decline in 11 of the past 12 quarters. I observed alienating treatment of a loyal customer at the store in Jersey City, N.J., which was also messy...

This is what I just found on Target's webpage. Remind you of anything? Here's a further hint: Target Finds #TakePride edition our curators put together a color-coordinated collection dedicated to being your authentic self in everything you do I guess they finally woke up to their tranny bathroom mistake, and are trying to be a little more subtle in their social statements [wink-wink]. Tell me, FReepers---is it working?

News that Amazon intends to buy Whole Foods Market for more than $13 billion was greeted jubilantly by financial markets, with Amazon’s stock rising 2.5 percent, almost enough to cover the entire purchase. At the same time, the shares of other grocery retailers, ranging from Kroger’s to Walmart, were punished severely, plunging as much as nine percent. That mixed reaction—riches for Amazon and excitement from consumers, amidst the decimation of an entire sector of the economy—proves the company’s power. The move takes it one step closer towards founder Jeff Bezos’ long-held ambition of becoming the “world’s store,” and it is...

Introduction Today, we take a look at the two online retail titans, consider how each business model differs and delve into the trends shaped by the financial results. The biggest difference between the two is that Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) primarily sells directly to consumers, building a network of warehouse and distribution centers with a goal of ever-improving fulfillment. Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), on the other hand, is less capital intensive and provides only a platform from which other businesses can sell directly to consumers. While both offer a platform for other sellers, AMZN is more focused on the logistics and engaging directly with...