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Fair Game: Sears Will Open KB Toys to Compete with Wal-Mart
Aired October 08, 2003 - 06:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little "Business Buzz" right now. It's never too early to start thinking about holiday shopping, and one major retailer has a plan that will appeal to both you and your children.
Carrie Lee live from the Nasdaq market site with details.
Good morning -- Carrie.
CARRIE LEE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again, Carol.
Sears says it's going to open 600 KB Toy stores in its department stores -- in 600 of its department stores. And this is up from 77 stores a year ago. Now they are going to start selling these toys very soon in mid-October going through January. And this is the latest alliance between a department store and a toy retailer. The idea here widely to compete against Wal-Mart and other discount retailers that have been eating into their market share during the holiday selling season.
Now department stores and toy retailers are hoping they can use their large orders combined to win lower prices from manufacturers and win back business from customers. Other new alliances include a partnership between Saks Fifth Avenue and FAO, as well as grocery store Albertson's, which is going to have Toys 'R' Us in 1,100 of its locations. So it looks like a pretty new trend here. By the way, holiday sales are a huge part of the $20 billion annual toy industry. So a lot of toys and they want to grab as much of this market share as they can.
Quick check on the markets. Looks like we could see a bit of selling at the open after five consecutive days of gains for stocks. Yesterday the Dow Jones industrials finished higher by 59 points. The Nasdaq closed up by 14 points. The S&P 500 up by nearly 5.
One stock we're going to be watching today is Alcoa. Last night after the closing bell, Alcoa reported profits that beat the Wall Street estimate. Earnings rose 45 percent. The world's largest aluminum producer crediting higher prices and cost cutting for the solid quarter. And after the close last night, the stock was up about 4 percent in the after-hours session. So we'll see what it does today.
Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: We'll keep an eye on it. Thank you. Carrie Lee reporting live from the Nasdaq market site.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Mart>
Aired October 8, 2003 - 06:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little "Business Buzz" right now. It's never too early to start thinking about holiday shopping, and one major retailer has a plan that will appeal to both you and your children.
Carrie Lee live from the Nasdaq market site with details.
Good morning -- Carrie.
CARRIE LEE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again, Carol.
Sears says it's going to open 600 KB Toy stores in its department stores -- in 600 of its department stores. And this is up from 77 stores a year ago. Now they are going to start selling these toys very soon in mid-October going through January. And this is the latest alliance between a department store and a toy retailer. The idea here widely to compete against Wal-Mart and other discount retailers that have been eating into their market share during the holiday selling season.
Now department stores and toy retailers are hoping they can use their large orders combined to win lower prices from manufacturers and win back business from customers. Other new alliances include a partnership between Saks Fifth Avenue and FAO, as well as grocery store Albertson's, which is going to have Toys 'R' Us in 1,100 of its locations. So it looks like a pretty new trend here. By the way, holiday sales are a huge part of the $20 billion annual toy industry. So a lot of toys and they want to grab as much of this market share as they can.
Quick check on the markets. Looks like we could see a bit of selling at the open after five consecutive days of gains for stocks. Yesterday the Dow Jones industrials finished higher by 59 points. The Nasdaq closed up by 14 points. The S&P 500 up by nearly 5.
One stock we're going to be watching today is Alcoa. Last night after the closing bell, Alcoa reported profits that beat the Wall Street estimate. Earnings rose 45 percent. The world's largest aluminum producer crediting higher prices and cost cutting for the solid quarter. And after the close last night, the stock was up about 4 percent in the after-hours session. So we'll see what it does today.
Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: We'll keep an eye on it. Thank you. Carrie Lee reporting live from the Nasdaq market site.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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