Retailers Post Sales Gains, but Discounts Hurt

Ron Johnson is out at JC Penney. His seventeen month stint at the retail giant will go down in history as one of the great leadership fiascos of the decade. We can learn a lot from Ron Johnson’s tenure at JC Penney. Here are three of the key lessons.

Clothing retailer kicks off the post-Christmas UK high street reportin

Zacks.com submits: Kohl’s Corp. (KSS) reported fiscal 2009 fourth-quarter results before the opening bell on Thursday. The company posted net income of $431 million or $1.40 per share, compared to $336 million or $1.10 per share in the year-earlier quarter. Quarterly earnings also topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.37 per share.

The reason why door buster deals, coupons, dramatic markdowns, and a short-lived sales are staples of the retail holiday scene is simple: They drive traffic into the stores. So how does a store attract customers when it’s sworn off all of these strategies? Well, you could try giving customers a coupon-like offer and pretend that it’s not a coupon. You could also try offering some freebies meant to win back the core customers you alienated by getting rid of coupons and nonstop sales.

Last month I wrote about Amazon.com‘s hasty exit from Texas when presented with a bill for $269 million in uncollected sales taxes (

Just in time.

Major retailers such as Macy's, Target and J.C.

I am always suspicious of early holiday season reports of glowing sales around Thanksgiving and especially Black Friday. Then, right after Christmas I always wonder if retailers lowball estimates so they can beat-the-street on same-store-sales reports. That said, because of the souring economy I am not surprised by reports of Lackluster Holiday Sales.