Bottom line – Sales are down but profits are up thanks to cost cutting & higher prices. Monster High did well and Barbie was up. “Looking at our second quarter results, we executed well and delivered solid performance despite the backdrop of a very challenging global economic climate that’s driving volatility in input costs and [...]

From “Mass Market Retailer,” the industry trade magazine. “This is Kmart’s 50th anniversary. The first Kmart opened on March 1, 1962, in Garden City, Mich. That was the year, as well, that both Walmart and Target opened their initial discount stores.” You can read the rest here …   Tweet This Post

(there are a few clouds) Lou D’Ambrosio, Sears Holdings’ CEO/president, said, “It’s also important to distinguish between our earnings issue and the strength of our balance sheet, where we have significant assets and liquidity. We are further strengthening the balance sheet by approximately $1 billion through the actions we are announcing today regarding Hometown, outlet, [...]

Pretty interesting book …. Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure Some excerpts … “I spent the summer of 2005 studying poker. I interviewed some of the best players in the world, attended the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, analyzed “pokerbots” — poker-playing computers — and chronicled the efforts of highly rational players, [...]

Perhaps fun is not the right word but seeing it on flatbed trucks is a lot easier to envision what’s going on in Europe … You can see the full chart here … this is literally just the morning load at 7 AM load … the truck is coming for a ton more loads … [...]

As you might know, Mattel announced the Q4 and 2011YTD earnings report yesterday … as a CARS buyer concerned with what’s going at retail … What does it all mean? Fourth Quarter Highlights Worldwide net sales up 1% from the prior year; Domestic gross sales down 2% and international gross sales up 5%; Worldwide gross [...]

Mattel, Inc. today announced that it will webcast its quarterly conference call on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. Led by the company’s chief executive officer, Bryan G. Stockton, the conference call will cover the company’s fourth quarter and full year 2011 financial results, which will be released prior to the call. The [...]

Mattel, Inc. today announced that it will webcast its quarterly conference call on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. Led by the company’s chief executive officer, Bryan G. Stockton, the conference call will cover the company’s fourth quarter and full year 2011 financial results, which will be released prior to the call. The [...]

If you used Ticketmaster’s website to buy tickets between October 21, 1999 and October 19, 2011, you’re in for a windfall. Well, a $1.50 per ticket order windfall. Because of a proposed class action settlement, Ticketmaster is being forced to credit $1.50 per ticket order (up to 17 orders) to customers due to the fact [...]

You may have noticed the recent addition of a PayPal logo on the upper right side of the TakeFive website that says “Donate” similar to this: I have added the PayPal Donate link on our site for those so inclined to help us ensure Metroxing stays hopped up on pocky and Jolt to keep pumping [...]