Retailing

Barnes and Noble chairman plans offer for bookstores

26 Feb 2013

Barnes & Noble said its chairman, Leonard Riggio, plans to make an offer for the company’s bookstores, a deal that would result in splitting them off from the company’s Nook device and e-book...

Hong Kong shopping malls record bumper new year sales

16 Feb 2013

The cash registers have been ringing loud and fast at Hong Kong shopping centres, with average sales rising 20 per cent at the start of the Year of the Snake, thanks to an influx of mainland...

Lingerie lines hook younger customers

15 Feb 2013

When Kathleen Jordan stopped at a Victoria's Secret a year ago to buy something for herself, the visit had an unintended consequence: her 13-year-old daughter got hooked on Pink, the lingerie...

UK retail faces virtual future or real demise

6 Feb 2013

Tradition has counted for nothing as new trends put paid to some of Britain’s best-known retailers, while some of the oldest names, like venerable department store chain John Lewis, are showing...

Services sector boom aids mainland economic recovery

4 Feb 2013

The mainland's services industries rose last month at the fastest pace since August as gains in retailing and construction aided a recovery in the economy.

Opinion

Jake Van Der Kamp

An age-old problem and the sums that just don't add up

Howard Winn

HSBC suffers the Taibbi treatment in Rolling Stone

Shirley Yam

How tycoons' IPO 'losses' may hide profits at herd's expense

Li Ning stumbles over costly makeover plan

Li Ning Company tumbled yesterday after the sportswear retailer - struggling with weak sales and high inventory - announced it would raise HK$1.87 billion by issuing convertible securities to...

Hong Kong closures signal Gome retreat

Gome Electrical Appliances' decision to close its Hong Kong operations signals a temporary halt to its overseas expansion plans, which have been losing momentum since its founder Wong Kwong-yu was...

Wal-Mart plans US$50 billion ’buy American’ push

Wal-Mart Stores will buy an additional US$50 billion in US-made products over the next decade in what it called a bid to help boost the US economy, although the announcement is unlikely to appease...

WEALTH BLOG

David Tang eyes luxe rice cooker

Tang-Tang-Tang-TANG … Sing it like Beethoven's Fifth. It's the name of businessman and bon vivant David Tang's new retail empire. So, what what what WHAT will it sell?

Tiffany challenged by logos as jewellery goes brand-mad

In Christmases past, gentlemen headed to their trusty local jewellery shop to buy generic gems for their significant others – strands of pearls, diamond-stud earrings.

JAPAN

Retailers in Tokyo's Ginza dealt blow by Chinese boycott in Diaoyus row

The sound of Putonghua-speaking tourists and the cash tills they set ringing have become rarer in Tokyo's upmarket Ginza district, retailers say, since a flare-up in a territorial row between...