With the WikiLeaks release of secret government communications this past weekend, there's nothing to say that your company won't be the next victim of a disgruntled insider and by poorly crafted security policies.  With the right access, a cheap thumb drive and a vendetta are the only ingredients an insider needs to obtain and leak secrets.  And even when security technology is doing its job, it's a poor match if someone with legitimate access decides to go rogue.  At risk are your entire company's plans, emails, documents, databases, internal websites, new product rollouts, just about every piece of information your company has and that your competitor would love to see.  We merely need to look back one week at the SAP-Oracle law suit for validation.  What's your team doing and are you involved in the planning processes?  Interestingly enough, recently we learned of a senior LP executive's departure from a major retailer when the Daily bounced back and referred us to another individual before the LP team had even been notified of the senior's departure themselves.  (Source Associated Press)

MasterCard Advisors' Spending Pulse, which tracks spending across all transactions including cash, released data Thursday showing spending on family and children's clothing rose more than 10 percent in November, with all types of clothing recording growth. Teen clothing was particularly strong, up 12 percent. Women's clothing was up about 4 percent and men's clothing was up 7 percent.  (Source Associated Press)

New survey by Towers Watson shows U.S. companies expect their budgets for salaries to rise about 2.9% for 2011.  The survey only shows companies who plan increases, with 5% of the companies saying they've frozen increases for 2011.  12% of companies surveyed froze salaries in 2010 and a huge 32% froze salaries in 2009.  Taking into consideration retail is a more tightly controlled business, these numbers may be a little high actually and we would forecast a 2% to a 2.5% increase for retail in 2011, with relocation budgets still significantly reduced over 08' and job growth extremely sluggish.  (Source Associated Press)


Quarter 3 Report

Zumiez 3Q reports same store sales up 14.4% with revenue up 20%
Express 3Q reports same store sales up 2% with total revenue up 6%
Rue21 3Q reports same store sales up 1.8% with revenue up 20%
Collective Brands 3Q reports revenue up 2%
Jo-Ann's 3Q reports revenue up 5.1%
Aeropostale 3Q reports same store sales flat with online sales up 17% and revenue up 6%
Kroger 3Q reports same store sales up 2.4% (without fuel) with sales up 5.9%

November Sales Report

Abercrombie & Fitch November same store sales up 22%
Pier 1 November same store sales up 10.2%
Limited Brands November same store sales up 10%
JCPenney November same store sales up 9.2%
Costco November same store sales up 9%
Dillard's November same store sales up 8%
The Buckle November same store sales up 7.9%
Wet Seal November same store sales up 7%
Kohl's November same store sales up 6.1%
Target November same store sales up 5.5%
Saks November same store sales up 5.3%
Cato November same store sales up 5%
BJ's Wholesale November same store sales up 5%
Gap November same store sales up 4%
Destination Maternity November same store sales up 4%
TJX November same store sales up 3%
The Bon-Ton November same store sales up 2.9%
Stage Stores November same store sales up 2.4%
Hot Topic November same store sales down 2.1%
Rite Aid November same store sales down1.3%

November results -- These are strongest November numbers since 07' going into the holiday season, but even if we hit the NRF's 2.3% increase in holiday sales, we won't see any loosening of capital budgets until 2012.

The FTC is proposing a "Do Not Track" tool for the internet so U.S. consumers can prevent marketers from tracking their web browsing habits.  (Source Associated Press)

Stolen credit card swipe terminal from ShopRite Supermarkets in Linden, N.J. this past May used to produce $80,000 in gift cards and male arrested selling them to customers this past weekend.  (Source supermarketnews.com)

Online advertised vacancies rose slightly by 47,400 in November to reach 4,457,200 advertised openings.  That equates to 10.4 million more unemployed than advertised vacancies.  (Source PRNewswire.com)

A design flaw in the iPhone, which their security team says they won't change, makes it vulnerable to web attacks that allow malicious websites to masquerade as trusted pages maintained by banks, stores, and other sensitive organizations.  The cause of this vulnerability is a design decision by Apple:  "The Safari browser on the iPhone allows websites to scroll the real address bar out of view," Dhanjani wrote in an email to The Reg. "This can allow a malicious website to display a fake address bar thus tricking the user to thinking they are browsing a legitimate site when they are not."  (Source theregister.co.uk)

Oracle is rolling out a new interactive mobile marketing strategy that works on smart phones and is being used in Europe right now.  It truly integrates the consumer in the store with products, programs, coupons, messaging, and store information that goes to a whole new level.  (Source theretailbulletin.com)

Scrap yard owner who steals 100 tons of nickel worth $2.6 million by simply cutting the chain link fence and hooking up the trucks and driving off shortly after Labor Day in Baltimore is caught trying to sell the nickel thru emails to suppliers.  (Source Associated Press)
 

Return Fraud to cost Retailers $3.7 billion this Holiday Season (Source NRF Survey)