L.L. Cool J put it best: “Don’t call it a comeback!” While the 80s/90s rapper is far from a retail analyst (he does have his only clothing line though), the idea best describes what I took away from same store sales results for the month of April.    Read More

A bright but brief relief to retailers will come tomorrow in same store sales figures. The International Council of Shopping Centers is predicting the strongest performance since February. But don’t get too excited--it's all relative.   Read More

The Walt Disney Company reported another stellar quarter, with earnings of 58 cents per share, blowing away Wall Street's consensus earnings estimate of 51 cents per share, while revenue came in at $8.71 billion, also beating analyst expectations, and up 10 percent over last year.    Read More

When Kobe Bryant was accused of sexual assault almost five years ago, the pitchman in Bryant fell off the face of the earth. Coke, which was using him for Sprite, shelved his ads and replaced him with Lebron James when his contract expired. McDonald's didn't renew him, neither did Nutella and Spalding.    Read More

I'm a movie junkie and I'm so happy the summer movie season is underway. You'll probably find me at a theater every weekend between now and the end of July--when the movie premiers finally slow down.    Read More

Iron Man opened the summer movie season with a whopping $100 million plus from the U.S. box office and $200 million worldwide. With Robert Downey Jr. cleverly cast in the starring role, the film is skewing to an older audience than traditional superhero fare, and has great word of mouth so far. ... Not only is this past weekend a good sign for Hollywood this summer, it's phenomenal news for Marvel Entertainment.    Read More

It is fitting that Sears' annual shareholders' meeting is being held around the same time as the Berkshire Hathaway gathering. Eddie Lampert, Chairman of Sears, not only says that Warren Buffett inspired his investing sensibilities. Lampert is also compared to the "Oracle of Omaha."    Read More

So I click over to Maria Sharapova's web site today and find this as the top story. "I want all my fans to know that the WTA Tour is forcing me and several of the other top players to do a 4 hour commercial shoot for WTA Tour marketing materials...   Read More

"Iron Man" from Marvel and Paramount opens today, kicking off the summer movie season. With the box office expected to top $85 million opening weekend, Hollywood's pretty excited, and for good reason. The economic downturn is squeezing consumer spending, but there's one corner of the consumer pocketbook that'll emerge unscathed from the "r" word.    Read More

It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Home Depot is closing stores. The home improvement retailer has been suffering from the same illness as the housing market. In fact, Wall Street had a positive view on the news that HD spaceris closing 15 stores and canceling plans to open 50 new locations.    Read More