Yes, Black Friday showed the power of e-commerce, but young women still love shopping malls, especially during the holidays. Sixty-five percent of respondents to a Teen Vogue survey said they would do most of their holiday shopping in stores because then they they can hang out with their friends, and bond with their mom. But mostly hang out with friends. The top three reasons they love the mall during holidays are store decorations/window displays (75%), music (53%) and collecting festive shopping bags (46%).

After facing criticism last year for failing to deliver thousands of packages by Christmas Eve, UPS says it won't happen this time, even with the big increase in online shopping. The company projects Monday will be the single busiest day in UPS history for its processing centers, the peak of a holiday season in which it estimates it will handle about 585 million packages. Next Monday is expected to be UPS' busiest delivery day: about 34 million packages moved worldwide.

The NFL is heading toward the Super Bowl on Feb. 1, and it's going to be loaded with car ads, as always. Strong sales this year and a salubrious outlook for next year suggests automakers will spend big. Nissan is returning after years away from advertising in the game. Jeremy Tucker, Nissan North America’s new VP marketing, formerly at Disney, said Nissan’s return to major events such as the Super Bowl is part of Nissan’s “Big Moments” marketing strategy.

The Vermont “Eat More Kale” dude has beat the big guy. In this case, that's Chick-Fil-A, which had won an initial U.S. Patent and Trademark Office enjoinder. But now he has been granted a trademark for his phrase. Chick-Fil-A has been waging war against the kale guy since 2011, when the company threatened to sue the Vermont folk artist for using the slogan on his line of T-shirts. Chick-Fil-A had argued that the phrase was too close to its own “eat mor chikin” tag.

PepsiCo India has hired two film stars for its marketing campaigns for Mountain Dew in the country. Akhil Akkineni and Arya were tapped specifically for their popularity in the southern markets. Ruchira Jaitly, PepsiCo India marketing and senior director said, in a statement, that their endeavor had always been to encourage youth to face their fears and overcome them to achieve something with Mountain Dew.

U.K. full-figure lingerie brand Curvy Kate is launching a risqué brand called Scantilly. “We saw a gap in the market for more raunchy lingerie but with a focus on fit for larger sizes,” explained marketing manager Hannah Houston. She said the brand has been in development for around a year and will have more luxurious fabrics than its sister label.

NPR's "Serial" podcast about the murder of Hae Min Lee and her boyfriend Adnan Syed, who was convicted is huge, and some brands are into it. Best Buy, which figures into the story, is the latest. Syed was supposed to have used a a pay phone in a Best Buy parking lot on the day Lee was murdered. On the day of the latest episode Best Buy tweeted: "We have everything you need. Unless you need a pay phone. #Serial" The company apologized.

Restaurant same-store sales growth slowed in November, to 1.5%, as consumers dined out less during the month, according to the latest NRN-MillerPulse survey. The primary reason for the slowdown was a 1.5% decline in traffic, the first time in four months that the index reported fewer diners. Same-store sales growth fell from 2.7% in October, and was at its lowest level since February. Poor weather that month was a major factor that kept consumers at home.

Ford Motor will introduce a high-performance RS version of its next-generation Focus line next year. The 2016 Ford Focus RS is part of an expanding portfolio of performance products coming from Ford, and it will be one of the first products to debut under the new Ford Performance organization. That operation will serve as the global umbrella for all of Ford's various performance operations, including American-based Special Vehicle Team, Ford Racing, and the European Team RS.

Activist investor Starboard Value wants office-supply chains Staples Inc and Office Depot Inc to merge, per sources. Starboard has a 5.1% stake in Staples and boosted its holdings in Office Depot to nearly 10%. Analysts have said a combination of the top two U.S. stationery retailers would help them fend off intense competition from online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc and big-box chains such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc that sell the same merchandise for less.