Posted Jul 3rd 2009 9:00AM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Marketing and advertising, Target Corp. (TGT), Best Buy (BBY), Sears Holdings (SHLD)
Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD), a retailer whose competitive colleagues include Target (NYSE: TGT), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), wants to improve its brand equity and find a new path to growth. As such, it's willing to employ all kinds of initiatives, especially ones that will form a nice image with the consumer during this dreadful economic contraction.
According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Sears is trying out a program that offers protection against the risk of investing in an expensive appliance during a time when job security is not as secure as it used to be.
The program will run for a specified time period beginning next week, and the basic gist is this: buy an appliance priced $399 or higher on a Sears credit card and, and if you lose your job, Sears will credit one twelfth of the cost every month. Still no job after one year? Keep the appliance, your debt will be forgiven.
Continue reading Sears offering hedge for consumers who lose their job -- good idea?
Posted Jun 29th 2009 10:20AM by Brian White
Filed under: Management, Competitive strategy, Best Buy (BBY)
Last week, Best Buy Inc. (NYSE: BBY) CEO Brad Anderson ceded the throne to 24-year Best Buy vet Brian Dunn, who took over as CEO. Dunn, who started with the largest consumer electronics chain in the U.S. by belting out the theme to Miami Vice to amp up home theater sales in the 1980s, has stated that he wants to "connect" every consumer that steps inside Best Buy's doors. That is, make sure wireless phones, PCs, and home theater become the chain's biggest opportunities. In other words, take advantage of the "three screens of opportunity."
Continue reading Best Buy welcomes new CEO Dunn, the prince of 'connectivity'
Posted Jun 20th 2009 9:40AM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, Adobe Systems (ADBE), Best Buy (BBY), Carnival Corp (CCL), FedEx Corp (FDX), Research in Motion (RIMM), Liz Claiborne (LIZ)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: FedEx, Best Buy, RIM, Adobe, Smucker, Discover and more
Posted Jun 19th 2009 4:40PM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Pfizer (PFE), Ford Motor (F), Home Depot (HD), Diageo plc (DEO), Best Buy (BBY), Lilly (Eli) (LLY), Harley-Davidson (HOG), Stocks to Buy

Every year I find myself asking the same question: What to get dad for Father's Day. Well, Kiplinger's offers not to get our dads the same old presents -- another tie, another power tool -- but
stocks in companies he probably likes or uses their products. That's a great idea, I thought, and decided to counter with five of my own.
- Kiplinger's suggests: Diageo (NYSE: DEO), the seller of such brands as Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Guinness and José Cuervo. Diageo has held up better than most during the recession -- thanks to a balanced portfolio of products, with higher exposure to mid-price, mainstream brands and less exposure to ultra-premium brands. The shares look reasonably priced. At $56.01, Diageo trades at 15 times estimated June 2009 earnings of $3.82 a share. The stock yields 2.8%.
- Another to consider: Molson Coors (NYSE: TAP), the seller of such brands as Coors, Blue Moon, Pilsner and Rickard's. Beer, probably even more so than hard liquor is supposed to hold better during a recession given the cheaper price point. The company's recent quarterly profits more than doubled. The shares trade at 13 times forward earnings of $3.33 and yield 2.2%.
Continue reading Five stocks for Father's Day from Kiplinger's ... and five more
Posted Jun 18th 2009 9:50AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Market matters, Best Buy (BBY), FedEx Corp (FDX), Politics, Cramer on BloggingStocks, Financial Crisis
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says we're back in the thrall of Washington, and he for one is tired of it. You just feel like telling President Obama, "Look, stay focused on getting us out of this severe recession in a responsible way without too much budget busting and things will all come together."
Instead, you wake up, and every day's historic ... including a lot of days you don't want to be historic. Or sweeping. Or groundbreaking. Like this one.
The only thing we really want to hear is that the U.S. growth rate is going from negative to positive, or even less negative. Now in our faces is the World Bank news from China that growth there is being raised from 6.5% to 7.2%. From the Chinese I can take all sorts of sweeping and groundbreaking and even, yes, revolutionary.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: 'Groundbreaking' days are here again
Posted Jun 15th 2009 3:40PM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, Wal-Mart (WMT), Target Corp. (TGT), Best Buy (BBY), Sears Holdings (SHLD)
Best Buy (NYSE:
BBY), the electronics mecca that competes with retailers such as
Wal-Mart (NYSE:
WMT),
Target (NYSE:
TGT),
Sears (NASDAQ:
SHLD), and
GameStop (NYSE:
GME), will be issuing earnings for the first fiscal quarter on Tuesday, June 16. According to this
source, Best Buy will see a decline in net income. Analysts believe that the retailer will do $0.34 per share, which represents a drop of about 20%.
But, according to that same source, Best Buy has beaten the analysts at their game in the last two quarters. If you ask me, I think the company has a good chance of beating the forecast yet again. With all the euphoria in the equities market as of late, and with all the talk about the recession possibly coming to an end late this year, I feel that consumers must have been in a better mood in the most recent quarter. And one would assume a big name like Best Buy would get its share of the traffic.
Continue reading Will Best Buy best the analysts?
Posted May 25th 2009 3:45PM by Brian White
Filed under: Industry, Best Buy (BBY), Lowe's Cos (LOW), OfficeMax Inc (OMX)
With the recession still in full swing these days, retailers continue to try and entice consumers into stores with discounts, special programs and new and improved gimmicks to ensure sales don't decline to drastically. So, in that sense, does it sound logical that some retailers are actually opening new stores? In some ways this may actually make sense, as long as you still to small, efficient and highly profitable.
OfficeMax, Inc. (NYSE: OMX), Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) and others are opening concept stores with a very limited selection of items in some markets and areas where full-size stores would be a huge risk. Best Buy has it Best Buy Mobile concept stores filled with high-margin wireless accessories and commissioned wireless handset and contract sales, and OfficeMax is launching stores with a selection of extremely popular items in stores as small as 2,000 square feet.
Continue reading More retailers creating smaller concept stores to sidestep the recession
Posted May 18th 2009 9:30AM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Best Buy (BBY)
Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) is widely assumed to be the biggest beneficiary of the downfall of Circuit City, but Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) is looking to crash that party. "Circuit City's business is up for grabs right now and we expect to get our share," Gary Severson, Wal-Mart's senior vice president of home entertainment, told (subscription required) the Wall Street Journal.
Companies like Nintendo and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) will get their own in-store displays, and Wal-Mart will also be revamping its electronics departments to create a more open and interactive Best Buy-like shopping experience. Wal-Mart has been trying to move upmarket in the consumer electronics business for years, and offering Palm's soon to be released Pre smart phone is another part of that strategy.
Continue reading Wal-Mart looks to expand electronics business
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