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Target reported earnings Wednesday that came in far below Wall Street's expectations, something the big-box retailer attributed to slower-than-expected demand. The company announced profits that missed forecasts by 20%, its widest miss in two years. Broader stock trading did not immediately react, however, as Wall Street awaits earnings from chipmaker Nvidia, which has helped power the market higher throughout the year. Target's report comes a day after rival Walmart reported earnings and revenues that beat expectations. “We’re expecting this holiday period to be very consistent with that,” Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey told CNBC.

Persons: Brian Cornell, Michael Fiddelke, “ We’re, John David Rainey, “ They’re Organizations: Target, Nvidia, Walmart, CNBC

☆ America’s stores are winning the war on shoplifting
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-13 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

New York CNN —A year ago, America’s stores declared a shoplifting epidemic. Target also closed nine stores, saying “theft and organized retail crime” threatened worker and customer safety and made business unsustainable. Many retailers’ merchandise losses have stabilized or improved, and chains have publicly dialed back their rhetoric. Their shrink rate — lost inventory as a percentage of sales — is their best estimate for items that go missing. The shoplifting rate in the first half of 2024 was also 10% higher than in the first half of 2019.

Persons: Target, “, Michael Fiddelke, Lindsey Nicholson, Gavin Newsom, ”, Michael Baker, DA Davidson, Donald Trump, William Blair, Walgreens ’, James Kehoe, ” Neil Saunders, “ That’s, it’s, Baker, ” Baker, David Johnston, Duane Reade, Angela Weiss, Ernesto Lopez, Edgar Dworsky, “ We’ve, ” Johnston Organizations: New, New York CNN, Target, Getty, “, DA, CNN, Companies, National Retail Federation, Criminal, Retailers Locations: New York, Queens , New York, California, New York City

☆ Department stores face another squeeze. This time, with store credit card revenue
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Melissa Repko | In Melissa-Repko | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

For fiscal year 2023, credit card revenue totaled $619 million for Macy's and approximately $475 million for Nordstrom . The three companies do not break out how much of total credit card revenue comes from late fees. All of that adds up to dwindling credit card revenue for retailers, who can now expect to see it shrink even further. Target's credit card revenue fell to $667 million last year, down from $734 million in the prior fiscal year. Gap does not disclose credit card revenue, but its Chief Financial Officer, Katrina O'Connell, said on an earnings call that losses from late fees will be "largely offset in 2024 by other levers within our credit card program."

Persons: Robert Nickelsberg, it'll, Jane Hali, Kohl's, David Silverman, Silverman, —, Michael Fiddelke, Macy's, Adrian Mitchell, It's, Nordstrom, Katrina O'Connell Organizations: Getty Images Department, Consumer Financial, Bureau, Associates, Nordstrom, Fitch, TD Bank, Shoppers, Adobe Analytics, Citi, Sam's Locations: New York City

☆ Target is testing a new self-checkout policy
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-18 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Target is testing a new self-checkout policy as retailers are finding the cashier-less technology can put off customers. At a handful of stores, Target has restricted self-checkout to customers buying 10 items or fewer. Target and other retailers had expanded self-checkout machines in recent years. Self-checkout machines sometimes break. Target said that merchandise losses, known as shrink, were not a factor in testing new self-checkout policies.

Persons: John Mulligan, “, we’ve, Michael Fiddelke Organizations: New, New York CNN, Target, BBC, Walmart, Costco, ” Locations: New York, United States, Britain

☆ The student-loan payment restart is about to put pressure on an already-fragile economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-07 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The resumption of student-loan payments is expected to add further strain. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementAdvertisementThe US economy has thrived over the past three years, since the initial shock of COVID-19 gave way to a rapid recovery. Here's what banks and economists are saying about the impact of the student-loan payment resumption on the economy. AdvertisementAdvertisementWhat will happen to the economy with the student-loan payment restartIt's difficult to predict how exactly the economy will respond to a surge of borrowers facing student-loan payments again — and it depends on a number of factors.

Persons: —, Marshall Steinbaum —, University of Utah —, Jerome Powell, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Jeff Gennette, Michael Fiddelke, Jefferies, Education James Kvaal Organizations: Service, Family Institute, University of Utah, Education Department, Federal, United Auto Workers, Bank of America, Education Locations: Helena

☆ I quit buying new clothes for 5 months, and it helped me curb my impulse purchases. Now, I'm doing it again as I start repaying my student loans.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-27 | by ( Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

I stopped buying new clothes for five months this year. Now that my student loans will be an added expense, I'm going to hold off on shopping for new clothes for a while. AdvertisementAdvertisementHere's what I learned from five months of buying no new clothes. While I wasn't buying new clothes, I did purchase a few new pairs of earrings to jazz up old dresses. The challenge helped me shop more consciouslyAt the end of the five months, thrifting was not only less expensive than buying new clothes, but it also helped me shop more consciously.

Persons: —, I'm, Michael Fiddelke, I've, Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins, snakeskin Jeffrey Campbell, It's, Depop, thrifting, wasn't Organizations: Service, Fashion Locations: Puerto Vallarta , Mexico, Costa Rica, Mexico, Los Angeles

☆ Target slashes full-year earnings forecast as retailer struggles to win over thrifty shoppers
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Melissa Repko | In Melissa-Repko | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

In this article TGT Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTwatch nowTarget on Wednesday missed quarterly sales expectations and slashed its full-year forecast, as it again had trouble convincing shoppers to buy more than necessities. Target's struggling shares rose 3% Wednesday despite the soft forecast, as its fiscal second-quarter earnings topped expectations and inventory levels improved. CEO Brian Cornell said Target's sales and store traffic improved in July. Comparable sales, a key metric that tracks sales online and at stores open at least 13 months, declined 5.4%. Digital comparable sales dropped 10.5% Sales softened in the second half of May and into June before recovering in July, Cornell said.

Persons: Target's, Brian Cornell, Cornell, Michael Fiddelke, Clawing Organizations: Investors, Amazon

☆ Target Pride backlash adds to sales woes as culture wars rage in corporate America
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Melissa Repko | In Melissa-Repko | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Target CEO Brian Cornell said "negative reaction" to the retailer's Pride merchandise hurt sales and contributed to the disappointing quarterly results that the company reported on Wednesday. He said the company saw behavior by some shoppers in June that "caused our teams to feel unsafe at work." He said the effort helps Target better reflect the communities it is in, which "adds tremendous value for our shareholders." When Target reported its results Wednesday, executives declined to estimate the financial hit from the Pride merchandise response. Some of the merchandise that came under fire was made by vendors rather than part of Target's own brands.

Persons: Brian Cornell, Cornell, Bud Light, influencer Dylan Mulvaney, Disney, Ron DeSantis, Michael Fiddelke Organizations: Target, Anheuser, Florida Gov, Associated Press Locations: Florida, North Carolina

☆ 'It's not people shoplifting': Why retail is focused on organized crime
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Eric Rosenbaum | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

watch nowIt's been hard to get an exact read on the rise in retail theft. But this quarter's batch of retail earnings have brought the theft issue to the forefront again. Target said organized retail crime will reach $500 million more in stolen and lost merchandise this year compared with a year ago. The National Retail Federation says organized retail crime is the main reason for retail "shrink" — a mismatch between actual inventory and what is on the books — which reached $94.5 billion in 2021, an increase of almost $4 billion year over year. But shoplifting is a big part of organized crime.

Discretionary products account for a major portion of the company's merchandise and it has been looking to increase the share of household essentials as sticky inflation and higher interest rates weigh on consumers' spending decisions. "American consumers continue to face difficult trade-off decisions as they juggle the wants and needs of their families ... The fear of a looming recession weighs heavily on many American families," Senior Target executive Christina Hennington said on a post-earnings call. Target projected adjusted profit between $1.30 and $1.70 per share, below estimates of $1.93 for the current quarter and forecast comparable sales to decline in the low-single digits. Target executives used the word "cautious" at least 13 times during the hour-long earnings call.

☆ Target forecasts gloomy second-quarter as consumers turn cautious
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Target projected adjusted profit between $1.30 and $1.70 per share, below estimates of $1.93 for the current quarter. It forecast comparable sales to decline in the low-single digits, compared to estimates of a 0.25% rise, according to Refinitiv data. The company also said theft and organized crime could reduce this year's profitability by more than $500 million compared to 2022. The pressure in discretionary categories outweighed strong growth seen in its everyday essential businesses, Chief Financial Officer Michael Fiddelke said. "We are confident that the economy and consumer will stabilize overtime and will once again benefit from growth in that (discretionary) portion."

☆ Target expects organized retail crime-fueled losses to jump by $500 million this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Melissa Repko | In Melissa-Repko | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Target said Wednesday that organized retail crime will fuel $500 million more in stolen and lost merchandise this year compared with a year ago. He described retail theft as "a worsening trend that emerged last year," and said violent incidents have increased at Target's stores. "The country has a retail theft problem," Home Depot CFO Richard McPhail said on a call with CNBC on Tuesday. Yet it's hard to verify if organized retail theft has grown and if so, by how much. Target has become more vocal about organized retail theft, as it has struggled with excess inventory and its margins have disappointed.

☆ Walmart lays off hundreds of workers at e-commerce facilities
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Melissa Repko | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Walmart is laying off hundreds of employees at e-commerce facilities across the country, as the big-box giant and other retailers brace for a tougher year ahead. Walmart, the nation's largest private employer, is shrinking its workforce as many retailers plan on roughly flat or declining sales. Walmart's e-commerce rival, Amazon , announced 9,000 job cuts on Monday, following 18,000 layoffs in January. Walmart anticipates slower sales growth and lower profits in the coming year, as Americans put more of their money toward buying necessities like food and household essentials. E-commerce sales for Walmart's U.S. business rose 12% in the most recent fiscal year, which ended Jan. 31.

☆ New York mayor says retailers must force shoppers to remove masks when entering stores to prevent crime. 'It's not about being fearful of a pandemic.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Ben Tobin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

NYC Mayor Eric Adams said face masks obstruct stores from identifying potential shoplifters. "Do not allow people to enter the store without taking off their face masks," he told a local radio station. "Do not allow people to enter the store without taking off their face masks," Adams told a local radio station Monday. He added that once in the store, shoppers can feel free to wear face masks. Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon said in December 2022 that stores would close and prices would rise if theft levels did not drop.

☆ Soon you'll be able to return Target purchases without getting out of your car
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Dominick Reuter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Target is rolling out a new drive-up returns service this spring, reaching nearly 2,000 stores this summer. The new feature uses the same mobile app that powers the company's popular curbside pickup option. E-commerce delivery and curbside pickup options have made it almost dangerously easy to buy stuff without having to go too far out of your way. Plus, the introduction of curbside pickup has only led to more visits to stores, not fewer, and the company sees this as extending that trend. The move also drives more engagement with the Circle membership program and the Target app, both of which are critical to the company getting more useful insights about individual preferences and shopping behavior.

☆ Walgreens executive says the company 'cried too much' about theft and may cut back on private security guards
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Ben Tobin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Walgreens CFO James Kehoe said the company overstated theft concerns in 2022. Kehoe said at the start of 2022 that the company's retail shrink rate had increased by 52% from 2020. The CFO called private security firms "ineffective" and said the company plans to rely on police instead. Kehoe's comments come after months of other retailers sounding the alarm about retail theft. "This is not petty theft," Kehoe said in a January 2022 investor call.

☆ The CEOs of Walmart and Target are warning of surging theft. Here's how a CVS exec said thieves steal $2,000 from stores in just 2 minutes.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Hannah Towey | Ben Tobin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

CVS Health's director of organized retail crime investigations testified to Congress in 2021 about the topic. According to the National Retail Federation, organized retail crime incidents jumped 26.5% on average in 2021. In congressional testimony, he said organized retail crime-related events are reported in a CVS Pharmacy store every three minutes. He had personally investigated organized retail crime for over 30 years. "Let me just be clear about what organized retail crime is not.

☆ Cutting Costs, Not Jobs, Is Focus for Many CFOs Facing Slowdown
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Kristin Broughton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

At the same time, many employers are looking for workers, with job openings well above the number of job seekers. That leaves some finance chiefs scouting for savings that don’t involve job cuts, or that supplement layoffs, advisers and analysts said. Other ways to cut costs include exiting leases, reducing the number of suppliers, automating tasks, trimming software spending and finding less expensive components, advisers said. Many companies over the past year have raised prices to keep up with escalating input costs, in addition to trimming expenses. Still, the company’s restaurant-level profit margin during the quarter ended Oct. 2 fell to 16.2% from 20.1% a year earlier.

☆ Walmart CEO: 'Stores will close' if theft at retailer doesn't slow down
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Ben Tobin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Doug McMillon told CNBC that theft is 'higher than what it has historically been' at storesHe said that along with stores closing if theft doesn't slow down, prices could be higher. Reuters previously reported that Walmart loses roughly $3 billion in theft each year. He added: "If that's not corrected over time, prices will be higher, and/or stores will close." McMillon said the key to reducing theft is Walmart working with local law enforcement agencies and ensuring that those agencies are fully staffed. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant is not the only retailer that has recently sounded the alarm on theft.

☆ Rising thefts at Walmart could lead to price jumps, store closures, CEO says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Gabrielle Fonrouge | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Walmart stores across the U.S. are grappling with an uptick in shoplifting that could lead to higher prices and closed stores if the problem persists, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said Tuesday. "We've got safety measures, security measures that we've put in place by store location. When asked on Tuesday about how local jurisdictions handle shoplifting cases, McMillon said a lax approach from prosecutors could impact prices and lead to store closures down the line. "If that's not corrected over time, prices will be higher, and or stores will close," McMillon said. It's store managers working with local law enforcement and we've got great relationships there for the most part," he added.

☆ Retailers’ Holiday Discounts Are Steeper This Year, CFOs Say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Kristin Broughton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Some chief financial officers in the retail sector say markdowns are necessary to start the new year without the drag of excess stock on their shelves. Other CFOs say their companies view the promotional environment as an opportunity to attract more customers. Below is a roundup of retail CFOs’ remarks on this topic during recent earnings calls. All the surveys that we’ve seen would indicate that the value is going to be an important driver for the customer. Historically, we’ve managed a collection of four basic inventory levers: cancellations, [return-to-vendors], push outs and vendor allowances, or VAs.

The holiday shopping season is in full effect as Thanksgiving week begins, and retailers are nervous. Data from the research group Factset show inventory levels among retailers including Walmart, Target, Amazon and Best Buy remain significantly above pre-pandemic levels. But those sales events are also coming at a time of a slowing economy and the ongoing weight of inflation, retail executives say. Despite the mixed economic signals, the U.S. Census Bureau reported unexpectedly strong retail sales for October. The National Retail Federation said earlier this month that it expects annual holiday sales growth to hit between 6% and 8%.

☆ Why Target will probably have the best Black Friday discounts this year
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Target will probably have the best deals this holiday shopping season, UBS analysts say. That's because Target has a glut of inventory it needs to get rid of during the holidays. "Since Target has been amongst the most impacted by having a glut of inventory this year, it will probably set the tone across several categories," the analysts wrote. The analysts visited Target stores and tracked how many items were on sale. They did note that Target's discounting has been less aggressive in categories like apparel and beauty.

☆ Target said it's lost $400 million this year due to 'inventory shrink' — and organized retail crime is mostly to blame
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Target said organized retail crime has led to more than $400 million in profit losses in 2022. Organized theft has become a major problem for retailers due to the rise of e-commerce. "Along with other retailers, we've seen a significant increase in theft and organized retail crime across our business," Brian Cornell, Target's CEO, said during the company's third-quarter earnings call. Inventory shrink on the whole cost US retailers nearly $100 billion in 2021, and it was driven by theft: retailers surveyed by the National Retail Federation reported a 26.5% increase on average of organized retail crime. Mulligan said while organized theft likely began in only some geographies, "we see those circles expanding and expanding and the impact continuing to grow."

The company said Wednesday it now plans for a weaker holiday quarter. Target did not provide an outlook beyond the holiday quarter, but said it expects tough conditions to persist. So far this fiscal year, those losses have had a more than $400 million impact on Target’s operating margin. Comparable sales, which track Target sales online and at stores open at least 13 months, rose 2.7% over the year-ago period. Target will share more details about its cost-cutting plan at an annual investor day, which is scheduled for March.

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