Christmas and holiday season

Workers packing ice-skating shoes at a manufacturing factory in the ice and snow sports equipment industry park in Zhangjiakou, in northwestern China's Hebei province, Thursday, July 15, 2021. 

Empty shelves for the holidays? Chinese suppliers face ambiguous global supply chain amid pandemic restrictions

Every year around this time, factories in China are finishing up orders and sending them across the world to arrive in time for the holiday shopping season. But this year, they may run out of time.

$100 billion worth of gift cards, mostly plastic, will be manufactured in the US this year.

‘Tis the season for giving plastic

Scams abound targeting holiday shoppers’ personal information

Retailers turning to product give-aways to lure shoppers to their websites

The Lonely Holiday Season

The World

Spain’s Holiday Shopping Boom Despite Economic Woes

Spain’s new Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy inherits huge economic problems but with the holidays approaching, stores and restaurants are mostly full.

The Year’s Best and Worst Christmas Songs

The Takeaway begins the holiday season with a week-long “Remixing the Holidays” series. All week long, we’ll be talking with musicians, music lovers, writers, and you, our listeners, about the best songs of the season.  Jon Solomon, a DJ who hosts an annual   24-hour Christmas show, gives us his best and worst Christmas music of the […]

After a Big Black Friday, Retail Sales Drop

Are you done with your Christmas shopping yet? If you are, you’re not alone. After having a bang up Thanksgiving, seasonal retail sales have taken a huge dive. According to the Department of Commerce, sales fell 2.4 percent in the first two weeks of December, the biggest drop in that Christmas sales time slot since […]

Can Holiday Shopping Save the Economy?

Every holiday season, many Americans feel the compulsion to shop for themselves and their loved ones. George W. Bush famously encouraged the nation to go shopping during his presidency, reminding Americans that 70 percent of the economy is derived from personal spending. This year, the economic engine went into overdrive during Black Friday and Cyber […]

Shoppers Prepare for Black Friday

Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year. As always, many stores are opening their doors earlier and extending sales for longer periods of time. Plus there’s a rise in consumer confidence this month. So this year, the shopping period looks promising for retailers. It’s estimated that 152 million people plan to shop […]