• Ford Leads In Vehicle Profit
    All of Detroit's automakers are now making money. But Ford Motor Co. is making a lot more on each vehicle it sells than GM or Chrysler. Ford's third-quarter operating margin in North America was 12% - the highest since the company began breaking out regional margins in 2000. By comparison, General Motors' margin was 7.8%, down 2.2 percentage points from the same period a year before. Chrysler Group LLC does not break out margins by region. But the Auburn Hills, Mich., automaker, which does most of its business in North America, reported a 4.6% operating margin.
  • J.D. Power: LLBean.com Tops Online Retailers
    LLBean.com ranks highest among online apparel retailers with a score of 830 (on a 1,000-point scale), followed by LandsEnd.com (829) and Forever21.com (824), according to the J.D. Power and Associates' 2012 Online Apparel Retailer Satisfaction Report. The study finds that satisfaction with online apparel retailers is significantly lower among online shoppers between the ages of 18 and 24 than among those 55 years of age and older.
  • Mainstream And Luxury Cars Converge
    Luxury auto brands are making money on entry luxury vehicles. As they move into even smaller segments of the market with vehicles like BMW 1-Series and a Mercedes-Benz vehicle, among others, they are butting up against mainstream cars that are getting more and more premium with their features. Detroit makers, especially, hope to increase small-car profits enough to make up for losing some of the huge earnings they've gained through the years from big trucks and SUVs, which are less popular now.
  • Nintendo Sells Big Thanksgiving Weekend
    Nintendo sold more than 400,000 units of its new Wii U console in the United States last week, its first time on sale. It would have sold more but it sold out its inventory, per Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimes. Nintendo had its first net loss in 30 years during the last fiscal year and is lowering estimates for this one. So it needs consumers to keep buying in the coming weeks and months.
  • Walgreens Opens Second Chicago Flagship
    Walgreens has opened its second flagship store, a restoration of Chicago's historic Noel State Bank building in the Bucktown/Wicker Park neighborhood. Like the downtown State and Randolph flagship location, it has offerings, products and services that are not in typical drug stores.
  • Black Friday Moves Online
    More and more consumers are doing Black Friday online. Per a report on Black Friday online sales from IBM: The average Black Friday online shopper bought 5.6 items per order. That's down 13% from last year. The average shopping "session" length was 6 minutes and 39 seconds. That's down about 10% from last year. Mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) accounted for 16% of sales. That's up from 10% last year. Mobile devices accounted for 24% of site traffic. iPads accounted for 10% of site traffic, up from 5% last year. iPhones accounted for 9% of site traffic, up from 5% …
  • Some Restaurants Say 'Let's Do Brunch'
    Florida-based fast casual Salsa Fiesta has added brunch to its made-to-order Mexican menu. And consumer demand for breakfast and brunch is a key driver for First Watch, a multi-state chain of 103 restaurants. But many restaurants are having trouble wrapping themselves around the idea. "I think brunch becomes a difficult occasion for [quick-service] operators to effectively address because this is typically a sit-down event for consumers," says Maeve Webster, director of food industry market research firm Datassential. "It's almost exclusively a weekend event, which wouldn't be very effective for a [quick serve] to offer."
  • New Restaurants From Big Brands
    Starbucks, White Castle, Red Robin and other mature brands are trying new restaurant concepts to grow. Starbucks bought 300-store shopping-mall chain Teavana for $620 million. The company also bought Evolution Fresh for all-natural smoothies and fruit drinks. White Castle has two in-house ideas it's incubating, The Laughing Noodle and Deckers, a sandwich concept whose first stand-alone is in a former White Castle store site in Louisville, Ky.
  • Volkswagen Plans Big Expansion
    Volkswagen will invest $65 billion, or EUR50.2 billion, over the next three years in its bid to become the world's best-selling automotive manufacturer. The investment includes "property, plant and equipment," but also a focus on new vehicles. The dozen automotive brands operated by Volkswagen AG already market about 250 different models but the German company has already revealed plans to significantly expand that line up with everything from high-mileage Volkswagen sedans to new SUVs for the Porsche and Bentley brands.
  • Retailers Stock Up On Cigarettes
    With a possible six-cent increase per pack on cigarettes, wholesalers are beginning to stock up on them before any hike goes into effect. The stockpiling follows a Wells Fargo Securities LLC prediction that a big hike will happen the week of Dec. 10, led by Philip Morris USA.
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