What Retailers Can Expect from the Biden Presidency
Now that America’s 46th president has assumed office, the question for dealers is whether a Biden administration will be good or bad for retail.
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Industry
Retail Sales Rose 8% During the Holiday Season
Total U.S. retail sales grew 8.3 percent year over year during the November-December period, topping $789 billion.
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Trade Group Urges Early Vaccines for Retail Workers
The National Retail Federation (NRF), the world’s largest retail trade association, has petitioned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to include retail workers in the early phases of COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
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PPP Round Two: What You Need to Know
The new $900 billion COVID stimulus package passed this week by Congress contains a number of new provisions that could directly affect BrandSource members, including additional Paycheck Protection Program funding (PPP) and relaxed deductibility rules.
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Manufacturers Aren’t as Crazy as You May Think
What a year 2020 was for us BrandSource members. First came the COVID-19 pandemic, and that was followed close behind by massive product shortages and manufacturers raising prices on just about everything.
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New Year’s Resolutions
Who would have thought one year ago that we would be dealing with what 2020 has wrought?
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November Sales Seesaw for Furniture, Appliance and CE Dealers
November was a mixed bag for specialty retailers selling furniture, appliances and consumer electronics.
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Blast from the Past: When Doing the Laundry Was a Gas
We all take it for granted that doing a load of laundry is an almost effortless task. However, in my grandmother’s day, laundry was a full-blown chore. Her traditional day for laundry was Monday. She called it “laundry day” because it took the entire day to knock out a week’s worth of wash for the family of six.
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Home Depot Banking on its Burgeoning Furniture Biz
The fact that quarantined consumers are spending their vacation funds on furniture has hardly been lost on The Home Depot.
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Business Groups Urge Congress to Restore PPP Loan Tax Breaks
Over 500 state and national trade associations, including the National Retail Federation (NRF), the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are pressing Congress to restore tax deductibility for business expenses paid with forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.
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GE Goes Off into the Wild Blue Yonder to Improve Deliveries
GE Appliances (GEA) is leveraging the latest information technology and machine learning tools to help make its fulfillment function smarter and more efficient.
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Samsung Hosts 2nd Annual Service Tech Competition
While nearly every appliance dealer has faced unprecedented challenges this year, the industry’s frontline servicers have shouldered more than their usual fair share.
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Bedding Makers Betting on Smart Products Too
Appliance brands weren’t the only ones showing their smarts
at last week’s CES
2020. At least two bedding manufacturers, Sleep Number and DUX, debuted innovative products that were right at home at the country’s largest
consumer technology show.
Best Buy is Thinking Out of the Box — Literally
Best Buy avoided the fate of Circuit City by turning lemons into lemonade.
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SBA Proposes PPP Questionnaire for $2M+ Borrowers
In the wake of criticism for issuing Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to financially viable companies like Shake Shack and the Los Angeles Lakers, and amid suspicion of widespread program abuse and fraud, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is seeking permission to question borrowers who received $2 million or more in PPP loans.
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Black Friday Sales Hit New Online Record
BrandSource’s forewarnings about the dramatic shift to online shopping were fully realized on Black Friday, when U.S. consumers broke the year-ago record for e-commerce sales.
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Who Was Open on Thanksgiving?
After years of family values pushback and compounded by the COVID crisis, national chains that once made a point of opening on Thanksgiving remained dark yesterday.
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Home Depot Doubling Down on Digital
The Home Depot reported a winning third quarter this week, which senior management attributed to two main factors: housebound consumers investing in their homes, and the record growth of digital commerce.
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Guardsman Disinfectant Earns COVID-Killer Status with EPA
BrandSource furniture-care partner Guardsman has some important news to share in the fight against COVID-19.
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UASA Cancels ASTI Service Show for 2021
The United Appliance Servicers Association (UASA), a BrandSource partner and arguably the nation’s largest appliance repair trade group, has pulled the plug on next February’s Annual Service Training Institute (ASTI) due to COVID-related health concerns.
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