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Advertiser Tidbits for the week of 11/29/04

Automotive:

• Acura sold its 170,945th car of the year last Friday, already making 2004 its best sales year ever.
• We have reported that American carmakers, at least, are seeing more inventory on their lots this fall than last. Another statistic from Edmunds.com suggests that previous year models are clogging showrooms at an increasing rate. In October, 54% of new vehicles sold were 2004 models. In 2003, the percentage of 2003’s sold in October was 45%, and in 2002, only 31% of new models purchased during October were 2002's.
• Forecasters are split about the outlooks for auto sales next year. Saul Hymans, of the University of Michigan sees sales rising from this year’s 16.7 million units to about 16.9 million next year. But Richard Berner of Morgan Stanley says sales are likely to fall to 16.5 million in 2005 as interest rates rise.

Retailing:

• Sales at major retailers were up 3.5% last week compared to the corresponding week last year. And Redbook Research said “some anecdotal evidence points to the holiday shopping season starting later this year than last.”
• The merger of Kmart and Sears could be bad news for many shopping malls that have Sears as an anchor. Apparently, part of the motivation for the deal was to speed up Sears’ move out of the mall and into stand-alone locations. Kmart gives the company lots of those opportunities. Lead investor Edward Lambert has said that “Sears’ experience, services and products are every bit as good as their competition. The problem is that they aren’t where the customers are. Put Sears in a Kmart box and it should do very, very well.”
• Wal-Mart is still predicting that its same store sales for November will increase 2% to 4%.
• Tweeter Home Entertainment Group, which recently announced new branding moves and store name changes, said last week that its third quarter same store sales were off 3.5%, a fact it says was due in part to losses from hurricane and storm damage to its locations in the Southeast. The chain expects to return to positive comp sales in 2005.
• Movie Gallery has made a competing bid for the Hollywood Video chain. Last week, Blockbuster offered to buy it. Part of Movie Gallery’s pitch is that Blockbuster would not be able to get antitrust approval for the deal.
• Duckwall-ALCO reported flat same-stores sales, both for the last quarter, and the year’s first nine months. New store openings have been few this year, but are planned to pick up. And the company is converting some ALCO stores into its ALCO Market Place format, with expanded grocery sections.
• S&K Famous Brands was up 2.5% in same-stores in the last quarter. It’s finished its slow expansion for the year with nine new stores and six closed under performing units.
• Fred’s, a discounter also with a large presence in the Southeast, also reported hurricanes negatively affected its third quarter results, as did increasing fuel costs. Same store sales still increased by 3.6% during the period.

Fast Food & Restaurant Chains:

• Chick-fil-A has added a number of new breakfast entrees in an effort to increase morning traffic to the stores. New offerings include the Breakfast Burrito and a Chicken Egg and Cheese Bagel Sandwich.
• Jack in the Box is making a play for holiday shopping dollars, marketing its new reloadable stored-value cards as great stocking stuffers. Also, the chain is selling new holiday ball antenna toppers, with their classic antenna ball made to look like Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer.
• Sizzler USA, which said its same store sales declined 1.4% in the most recent quarter, is “re-evaluating our creative, media and promotional strategies to find a more effective way of increasing our guest traffic.”

Telecommunications:

• Sirius Satellite Radio said it has passed the 800,000-subscriber mark and expects to be at a million by the end of the year. Its new ad campaign features its NFL exclusives and commercial-free music.
• TiVo announced it hit the 2.3 million-subscriber mark, more than double where it was last year at this time. Now available in 4000 stores, it expects to be at 3 million subs at year’s end.
• The FCC reports that about 8 million cell phone customers have switched carriers while retaining their telephone numbers in the year since the agency required cell phone companies to offer that service. Another 750,000 consumers have moved either a home or office number to their cell phones, says the Commission. AT&T Wireless is apparently the biggest loser of customers, while Verizon has picked up the most new subscribers.

Other Categories:

• Another company having a great year is John Deere. The agricultural division’s sales were up 35% for the quarter and 31% Y-T-D. Deere expects additional (although smaller) increases next year, noting farmers have record production of some crops, and the livestock and dairy segments are strong.
• As part of the hurried Congressional budget action over the last few weeks, the money for the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy has been cut by 17% to $120 million.
• Coinstar, which makes those machines that convert loose change into currency at supermarkets, launched its first television campaign yesterday. The effort is being created by Publicis Seattle.
• Zipcar, a “car-sharing service” that aims at college students, wants to go national. It’s currently in 20 cities, is profitable in all of them, and wants to get into at least three more next year. Customers use an ATM-like card to unlock the car they’ve reserved, and Zipcar has a wireless network that allows it to track use of the cars.

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