Check Out Nintendo Co Ltd’s Wii video game console as a darling of the 2007 holiday shopping season. 

Strong demand for the Wii was key to U.K. video game retailer Game Group Plc’s  better-than-expected full-year profit forecast, the company said on Monday.

Last week, Amazon.com Inc said it sold nearly 17 of the popular systems per second when it had them in stock, helping the online retailer post the best holiday season in its history.

Last month, the system helped Nintendo remain king of the U.S. market with 981,000 Wiis sold in the console’s best showing since its November 2006 debut, according to market research firm NPD Group.

Also in the basket:

With Wii and DS, Nintendo has 2 Hit Game Devices (New York Times)

Credit Crunch, Housing Crisis Socks Retail (New York Post)

Macy’s to close nine stores, affects 899 jobs (Reuters)

Check out a court ordering athletic shoe retailer Finish Line to complete its $1.5 billion purchase of Genesco.

In June this pairing seemed like a match made in heaven. Now they’re being forced to the altar kicking and screaming.

“When you combine the entities together we really have a strong positioning across all these multiple categories of footwear,” Finish Line Chief Executive Alan Cohen told Reuters back in June.

But nearly two months later, Finish Line got cold feet and said it would weigh its options after Genesco — a shoe and hat retailer — posted a surprising quarterly loss.

A Tennesse court on Friday found Finish Line in breach of the deal and ordered the sneaker seller to close the deal. 

The news whetted investor appetite for Genesco shares, and its stock surged as much as 16 percent following the announcement. Finish Line’s stock plunged as much as 25 percent.

Also in the basket:

Holiday online receipts are strong, but reflect growth rate decline (New York Times)

Store traffic falls in week before Christmas (Reuters)

Jewelry brands look to capitalize on accessories (Women’s Wear Daily, subscription required)

Wal-Mart cancels movie download service (Reuters)

Check Out U.S. consumer confidence climbing slightly in December despite the fact that many American consumers are becoming increasingly budget-conscious as they deal with higher food and fuel costs and the subprime mortgage crisis.

Economists and policy makers are keeping a close eye on consumer spending — which is increasingly being viewed as the last line of defense for an economy that some fear is sliding into a recession.

The Conference Board on Thursday said its index of consumer sentiment crept up to 88.6 in December from a revised 87.8 last month. The media forecast among economists polled by Reuters was for a reading of 86.5.

But despite the climb, consumers aren’t seeing the U.S. economy through rose-colored glasses.

“While consumers are less negative about the near-term future, they remain far from optimistic,” said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board’s consumer research center.

“In fact, assessing the current job market, pessimists now outnumber optimists.”

Also in the basket:

Holiday spending raises recession flag (Reuters)

Deals lure shoppers (Women’s Wear Daily, subscription required) 

Major retailers feel the squeeze from consumers (New York Times)

Gift cards may be stores’ only present (New York Post)

Retail investors have long had to suffer the jargon and weirdness of same-store-sales reports and non-standard earnings periods. 
    So when Amazon.com announced it had its best 2007 holiday season ever, it offered a glimpse a new kind metrics, numbers perhaps more relevant to the 21st century, Web-savvy consumer.
    Amazon said in a news release its busiest day of its busiest season was Dec. 10 when 5.4 million items, or 62.5 items per second, were ordered. Last Dec. 11, their busiest day of the 2006 holiday rush, it had more than 4 million orders.
    It didn’t offer any overall metrics for the holiday period, or offer anything in dollars and cents. But here are a few of the factoids Amazon did disclose:
    
* Amazon.com sold Nintendo Wii systems at approximately 17 per second when they were in stock.
* Amazon.com sold enough high-def DVD players to cover seven football fields.
* If you lined up all of the GPS units Amazon.com sold this holiday, they would make a trail from New York to Philadelphia; however, a new trail wouldn’t be necessary with  the use of a GPS.  (sic)
* Amazon.com sold enough auto wrenches to stretch all the way around the Daytona 500 track.
* Amazon.com sold enough Hannah Montana wigs to outfit the
entire audience at her December 20th show in Providence, RI.

Check out how holiday retail sales came in at the low end of expectations, but weren’t as a bad as some feared.

U.S. specialty apparel retailers saw sales rise 3.6 percent during the crucial holiday shopping period, which lasts from the Friday after Thanksgiving through midnight December 24, according to SpendingPulse data released on Christmas Day.

SpendingPulse —  a report compiled by MasterCard Advisors — had expected consumers to spend between 3.5 and 4.0 percent more on holiday gifts than they did last year last year.

“It’s more at the lower end of the expected range, but more or less in line with reduced expectations coming into the holiday season,” said Michael McNamara, vice president of Research and Analysis of MasterCard Advisors.

Analysts and policy makers have kept a close eye on U.S. consumers to see how their spending is changed by rising food and fuel costs, the U.S. housing meltdown, and concerns over whether the economy is headed for a recession.

But despite the challenges, things could be a lot worse, Andre Bakhos, president of Princeton Financial Group told Reuters.

“Early tracking numbers on retail sales suggest they’re a bit light. But there’s a feeling it could have been a lot worse, as there has been talk of recession. The market is looking at this as the cup is half full.”

Also in the basket:

Margins to make or break holiday (Women’s Wear Daily, subscription required)

Retail stocks slumber as worrisome 2008 looms (New York Post)

Futures dip on retail worry, Target drops (Reuters)

Gum that won’t stick to shoes? It’s in the works ( New York Times)

Check out discounting being key to determining who the retail winners and losers of the 2007 holiday shopping season are.

Consumers were hungrier than ever for discounts this year as they grappled with rising food and fuel costs, the U.S. housing meltdown, and worries about whether the American economy is careening towards a recession, a survey from consumer marketing firm America’s Research Group showed.

“I have never seen consumers more cautious, more bargain driven, more savings obsessed than I have this year,” Britt Beemer, founder and chairman of American Research Group, told Reuters.

Aggressive discounting paid off for the season’s star performers — Costco Wholesale Corp, J.C. Penney Co Inc, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, and Barnes & Noble Inc, according to the survey.

Retailers who failed to discount effectively — Macy’s Inc, Circuit City Stores Inc, Borders Group Inc and Dillards Inc — were the season’s worst performers.

American shoppers went out “and bought every deal they could,” Beemer said.

“When there were no deals, there weren’t many buyers.”

Also in the basket: 

The cooling economy is hurting Target’s holidays (New York Times)

Obama retreats from call for China toy-import ban (Reuters)

Holiday spending may defy gloom of consumer polls (WSJ, subscription required)

UK shoppers race to stores for last Christmas buys (Reuters)

Santa is packing more sofas and less jewelry (New York Times)

This holiday season, Wal-Mart has gone far beyond Walmart.com to extend its online reach.

The retailer began www.walmart.com/secret to advertise the limited-time only discounts that it was offering on popular products, like flat-panel televisions and iPods, in its stores intermittently throughout the holiday season.

Wal-Mart also launched http://www.helpaguybuy.com/ to, well, help a guy buy holiday gifts for that special lady in his life.

But with all the attention on general merchandise, what about that other very important sales category for Wal-Mart — food?

Not to worry. There’s http://www.savemoneyeat better.com/ to take care of that.

It features “Made from Scratch” recipes, like Jimmy Dean sausage stuffing. There’s also “Made in Minutes” ideas, like Sara Lee Elegant Chocolate Cheesecake Delight. And then there’s ”Made to Order” — featuring precooked ham, apple pie, take & bake pizza, and veggie trays sold in Wal-Mart Stores or its Sam’s Club warehouse locations.

The sites, of course, all have a common theme — a link directing shoppers to the nearest Wal-Mart store so they can buy their holiday gifts or groceries.

(Photo: Reuters)

With more than half of its yearly sales rung up during the holiday shopping season, worries over product safety couldn’t have come at a worse time for the toy industry.

Recent data show last summer’s recalls — of millions of Chinese-made toys — are leading shoppers to spend less on playthings for the holidays.

A recent MSN-Zogby poll showed that one in four U.S. shoppers would spend less on toys for the holidays this year as a result of the recalls, which were often prompted by potentially dangerous levels of lead paint, or small parts that could get ripped off a product and create a choking hazard.

The poll also found that 83 percent of Americans associated unsafe toys with China.

“In our case — and for other parents we know — we chose to just pass the season without doing regular toys,” said David Silberman, a recall-wary New York father of two, told Reuters in an interview.

“It’s a very scary thing,” he added “… This is the kind of time I would choose to shop in Lulu’s — a small store — as opposed to K-Mart, because I don’t trust the big vendors.”

(Photo: Reuters)

Check out a wider quarterly loss at Circuit City coming just days after rival Best Buy reported a 52 percent jump in its quarterly profit.

Circuit City said its third-quarter loss widened as sales fell and its store changes disrupted business.

The consumer electronics retailer also forecast a loss for the current quarter, compared with its earlier expectation of a profit.

Circuit City said products with declining sales included projection and tube TVs, and desktop computers, while those that saw increases in sales included flat-panel televisions, notebook computers, video games and navigation systems.

Meanwhile, the retailer said it underestimated how store changes – like creating new supervisory posts and eliminating shelf-stocking duties for sales associates — would hurt its financial results. Chief Executive Philip Schoonover said the company would “slow the rate of change in its business.”

The results did not put investors in a holiday shopping mood, and its shares plunged 22 percent in early trading.

Also in the basket:

Feeling Pinch, Stores Woo Lagging Shoppers (WSJ, subscription required)

After the Recalls, Two Toy Stories (WSJ, subscription required)

Walgreen quarterly profit rises 5.5 percent

Campbell Soup selling Godiva to Turkish company

(Logo: Circuit City Web site)

Investors who bought Starbucks stock this year are likely eager to kiss 2007 goodbye, as shares of the world’s largest coffee shop chain have tumbled over 40 percent since January on concerns about slowing U.S. customer traffic, rising dairy costs and competition from fast-food rivals, such as McDonald’s.

But 2008 could bring the Seattle company a new headache, according to one analyst — a knock on the door from shareholder activists.

In a research note on Starbucks on Thursday, Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Howard Penney warned that “the dramatic downturn in the company’s fundamental performance is likely to create issues that it has never faced before as a public company — shareholder activism.”

Penney cited recent investments by activist shareholders in restaurant chains Panera Bread and The Cheesecake Factory for his view.

“It is only a matter of time before one appears and starts to put some pressure on Starbucks,” he wrote.

Finally, Penney channeled the Christmas spirit to list his “key points” on Starbucks:

On the twelfth day of Christmas, Starbucks gave to me…
12 - Signs of traffic humming
11 - Improved new unit volumes
10 - Speedier baristas
9 - More transparency
8 - Product inn-o-vation
7 - More global growing
6 - Rising ROIC
5 - Slowed U-S growth!
4 - Four-wall initiatives
3 - Three new desserts
2 - Two new board members
1 - And a change in U-S strat-e-gy!