Holiday shopping news and stories by mail.com

Holiday shopping

Gunman opens fire in Portland mall; 3 dead
A masked gunman wearing camouflage opened fire Tuesday in a busy Portland mall, leaving the gunman and two others dead and forcing the mall's Santa ...
3 dead, including gunman, in Oregon mall shooting
A gunman opened fire in a suburban Portland shopping mall Tuesday, killing two people and wounding another as people were doing their Christmas ...
LA ports reopen after crippling 8-day strike ends
Port clerks returned to work Wednesday, jubilant in the knowledge that an eight-day strike that paralyzed the nation's busiest shipping complex had ...
Retailers report weak sales gains for November
Black Friday was no match for Superstorm Sandy. Major retailers from Target to Macy's reported weak November sales as the strong start to the holiday ...
Microsoft ads deride Google as bad place to shop
Microsoft is trying to skewer Google as a lousy holiday shopping guide in its latest attempt to divert more traffic to its Bing search engine.
Fed survey: US economy growing at steady pace
A pickup in consumer spending and steady home sales helped lift economic growth from October through early November in most parts of the United ...
US economy gets lift from consumers, businesses
American consumers are growing more confident about the job market, companies are ordering more equipment and home prices are rising in most major ...
Oil prices up on brisk US retail sales, Greek deal
The price of oil inched up closer to $88 a barrel Tuesday as investors were encouraged by robust retail sales in the U.S. ahead of the Christmas ...
Cyber Monday likely to be busiest online sales day
Americans clicked away on their computers and smartphones for deals on Cyber Monday, which is expected to be the biggest online shopping day in ...
Despite talk of compromise, fiscal deal elusive
Talk of compromise on a broad budget deal greeted returning lawmakers Monday, but agreement still seemed distant as the White House and congressional ...
Asia stocks post slight gains after Black Friday
Asian stock markets posted slight gains Monday after the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season in the U.S. topped expectations, offsetting ...
Holiday shopping season off to record start
If you make holiday shopping convenient, Americans will come in droves. It's estimated that U.S. shoppers hit stores and websites at record numbers ...
Thanksgiving steals sales from Black Friday
Thanksgiving shopping took a noticeable bite out of Black Friday's start to the holiday season, as the latest survey found retail sales in stores fell ...
Obama buys books to promote independent shops
President Barack Obama made a quick trip to a Virginia bookstore for some Christmas shopping. The president took his daughters, Sasha and Malia, to ...
Black Friday creeps into Thanksgiving permanently?
This season could mark the end of Black Friday as we know it. For decades, stores have opened their doors in the wee hours on the day after ...
Powerball jackpot builds to $325M for Saturday
Black Friday shoppers in many cities briefly detoured into lottery retailers, drawn off task by the prospects of winning a $325 million Powerball ...
Why must we buy? Black Friday's powerful pull
Gravy was still warm. Dallas Cowboys were still in uniform. Thanks were still being given across the country as the pilgrimages to the stores began, ...
Black Friday creeps into Thursday
The nation's shoppers put the turkey down to take advantage of an early start to the holiday shopping season. Stores typically open in the wee hours ...
Fewer holiday catalogs but still plenty in mail
Catalog shopper Kerry Falagario would be hard-pressed to tell that there's been a decrease in catalog circulation. They're coming fast and furious ...
Stores try to make holiday shopping cheap and easy
This holiday season, Burger King won't be the only place where you can have it your way. It used to be enough for stores to promise discounts up to ...
Wal-Mart and Target: A tale of 2 discounters
This holiday season, the biggest discount chains in the U.S. will tell the tale of two very different shoppers: those that have and those that have ...
Sandy, careful consumers lower US retail sales
Superstorm Sandy combined with cautious consumers to lower retail sales in October and raise concerns about weaker economic growth and a tepid holiday ...
Target has earlier start for holiday kickoff
Target Corp. will open its doors at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving, three hours earlier than a year ago, to kick off the holiday shopping season.
Singles Day: China's online shopping holiday
Lei Shujie, a designer in Shanghai, piled up a wish list for the quirky holiday dubbed "Singles Day" that has grown into China's — and possibly the ...
Wal-Mart raises stake for holiday season's start
Attention frustrated Black Friday shoppers who can never grab that hot product: Wal-Mart is hoping to relieve some of that anxiety. The world's ...