General retail sales figures for November can be read a variety of
ways. On one hand, as the chief economist of Credit Suisse First Boston
told the Wall Street Journal: "On the whole, we think the
consumer is slowing down from the overheated pace of the past couple of
years." On the other hand, an A.G. Edwards analyst wrote, as quoted in
the New York Times, "It's easy to get emotional this time of
year and to read lots of gloomy stuff" into the figures, but sales
growth "remains steady."
On average, sales at stores open at least a year rose 3.5% in November, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. Retail Metrics said comp-store sales rose 3.7%.
A few specialty retailers did exceptionally well (Abercrombie & Fitch was up 23% and Ann Taylor rose 12.9%). But department stores were sluggish, and luxury stores didn't shine as much as they have in the past.
Even discounters struggled for sales. Costco was a gain leader, up 6%; Wal-Mart, which tried to appeal more to upscale customers while heavily marketing and discounting, rose 4.3%; Target was off-target at 2.6%.
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Among holiday book roundups this week: USA Today's "hidden gems" and the Wall Street Journal's "coffee-table Christmas" guide in today's issue.
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Effective January 1, International Publishers Marketing, the Dulles, Va., sales, marketing and distribution company, will handle North American distribution of the U.K.'s National Archives' publications program. The National Archives collection encompasses more than 1,000 years of British history.
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Bookworld Companies, which now sells and distributes for 144 publishers, has added eight clients:
On average, sales at stores open at least a year rose 3.5% in November, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. Retail Metrics said comp-store sales rose 3.7%.
A few specialty retailers did exceptionally well (Abercrombie & Fitch was up 23% and Ann Taylor rose 12.9%). But department stores were sluggish, and luxury stores didn't shine as much as they have in the past.
Even discounters struggled for sales. Costco was a gain leader, up 6%; Wal-Mart, which tried to appeal more to upscale customers while heavily marketing and discounting, rose 4.3%; Target was off-target at 2.6%.
---
Among holiday book roundups this week: USA Today's "hidden gems" and the Wall Street Journal's "coffee-table Christmas" guide in today's issue.
---
Effective January 1, International Publishers Marketing, the Dulles, Va., sales, marketing and distribution company, will handle North American distribution of the U.K.'s National Archives' publications program. The National Archives collection encompasses more than 1,000 years of British history.
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Bookworld Companies, which now sells and distributes for 144 publishers, has added eight clients:
- House plans publisher Garlinghouse Company, which claims that more homes have been built from its plans than from any other publisher's plans.
- Huntington Press, the Las Vegas publisher of books on gambling and Las Vegas.
- Divine Egg of Barcelona, Spain, publisher of self-help texts in Spanish.
- Big City Publishing, which puts out children's activity books featuring Felix the Cat.
- Sacred Love Records, seller of religious music.
- Thind Commercial, which publishes the books by the philosopher Bhagat Singh Thind.
- Kabbalah Yoga, Inc., one of the principal yoga publishers.
- International Medical Publishing, which publishes for the medical profession.