98 Quotes by Britt Beemer

Parents have much lower spending plans this year, with the average at $296.20 compared with $411.24 a year ago.

Over the last couple years, chains have tried to do something different -- they're trying to give consumers a different look, a different style.

Overall, the moderate-priced stores such as J.C. Penney, Sears and Wal-Mart had good traffic levels. We think luxury sales were probably flat this past weekend because more people said they decided to go away on vacation before Christmas this year than last year. So this could have impacted spending on other high-end items.

Retailers had a sales plan for Christmas, stayed with it and then benefited from a very strong January without giving up margins.

Retailers are fighting lower profits than in years past. The industry's is definitely more competitive today and companies have to do what they can to not take unnecessary markdowns.

Retailers are caught in a 'Catch-22' situation. Their costs, such as transportation costs, are going up and this is not going to change in the short term. Meanwhile, their consumers are going to be extremely deal focused.

Our research on holiday gift returns shows that it's only three percent of Americans who are real jerks and they indulge in consumer fraud and return abuse. The rest of us have to deal with the consequences.

Starting in the late 1980s, employees and prospective employees in the retail sector stopped looking at retail as a career opportunity. They look at it as a temporary stopover until something better comes along. When this happens, everybody loses -- employees, customers, stores, etc.

Some of the this may be attributed to the removal of the quotas and some to the strength of retail sales.