November 2023

It’s one other season of mood swings for retailers. Black Friday weekend saw heady online gains and an OK turnout at stores, putting retail executives on a brief high. Yet while consumers responded to the barrage of price promoting over the past week — with dry and cooler weather encouraging them to get out and buy gifts and winter styles — after Cyber Monday retailers anticipate a serious lull in business until about 10 days before Christmas. Industrywide, caution over the general holiday outlook stays and no person is able to revise the conservative forecasts for fourth-quarter low-single-digit revenue increases or declines, despite last weekend’s end result.  As Jeff Gennette, the outgoing chairman and chief executive officer of Macy’s Inc., told WWD on...