Montgomery Ward & Co.'s owned and leased properties might be ready to be sold or leased if they are found bankrupt in court.  Kimco Realty Corp. will take on the project of finding prospective tenants.  Approximately 75% of the Montgomery Ward leases are in regional malls.  Kimco's Specialty area is community shopping centers, therefore they brought in Simon Property, whose specialty is regional malls, to help with the leasing.  Kimco will likely bring in big-name tenants such as Kohl's Corp., Target Corp., and Sears, Roebuck & Co.  Analyst Joel Goodman said Kimco has a track record of "coming in and taking real estate from bankrupt retailers and turning it into productive space."

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Target has announced it will reduce the amount of goods they purchase from National Presto Industries Inc.  National Presto offers products specialized in pressure cookers and electronic appliances.  Target stated it is not due to dissatisfaction with Presto's performance or the products, but with Target's decision to increase reliance on foreign sourcing.  Target was Presto's second largest customer, behind Wal-Mart.  Target accounted for 12% of Presto's sales in 1999.  As a result, there will be a significant decline in Presto's overall sales.

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Target stores announced they will be carrying a new line of home furnishings.  They are now partnered with Waverly, a national decorating resource.  Beginning in March, Target will offer the Waverly Garden Room Collection.  This collection will showcase bedding, bath linens, bath accessories, kitchen textiles, kitchen accessories, dinnerware, serving ware, decorative home furnishings, stationary and gift-giving items.  The Waverly Garden Room will use 6 different floral patterns, three of which are Waverly classics:  Sweet Violets, Vintage Rose, and Garden Lane.  They will also offer complementing coordinating patterns in solid, stripe and gingham patterns.  Gregg Steinhafel, president of Target stores commented, "The addition of Waverly Garden Room is another way in which Target is delivering on its promise to offer high-quality, well-designed merchandise at affordable prices."

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After the holiday season, Walmart.com evaluated what customers want and don't want, and decided to re-allocate their resources.  They choose to lay off twenty-five employees in merchandising and marketing, but added fifty-two engineering, design and product-manangment employees.  Instead of focusing on clothes, they will now focus on more profitable items, such as electronics.  Walmart.com also hopes to improve the sites' engineering and design.  In the future, Walmart.com also plans to team up with AOL Time Warner, Inc. to launch an Internet-service provider.

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Wal-Mart is now offering another piece of new technology to attract more customers.  Using RealNetworks, Inc.'s internet Audio Software, customers can listen to songs from CDs on Walmart.com.  Every audio CD at Walmart is available to listen to.  Previews of each track are thirty seconds in length.  Music retailers often offer music sampling, but few offer every song available to their customers.

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K-Mart Corp. signed a $70 million contract with Symbol Technologies for wireless and mobile-computing equipment.  The new equipment is an updated version of the wireless technology they now have.  It will include new items such as, Symbol's wireless local area network and gun-shaped hand-held computers equipped with laser scanners.  The new equipment will be used for customer service tasks such as price checking and inventory management.  K-Mart hopes that the upgrade will help build the infrastructure to better satisfy and serve their customers.

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K-Mart spent more than $200 million for a new computer system by International Business Machines Corp.  The new computer system will enable Kmart to improve it's checkout system.  The computer system, a SurePOS 700, will include hand-held scanners, a receipt printer, and touchscreens.  The touchscreens will include displaying customer-transaction information and product advertisements.  The new systems will be in all K-mart stores by 2002.  They have already been installed in Kmart's highest-volume stores in Troy, Michigan.

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According to January's sales, retailers will be in line with the rest of the market for the remainder of the year.  However, if interest rates fall, retailers could outperform the market. A.G. Edwards analyst Robert Buchanan recommended that investors buy shares of Kohl's Corp., and Home Depot Inc.  He also recommends to sell Kmart Corp. shares because of the competition against Wal-mart.  He commented, "Wal-mart has very low prices and is a very tough retailer to compete against.  Kmart has not enough differentiation in assortment and poor customer service."

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J.C. Penney Co.'s stock has been dropping since 1995.  They seem to be falling out of fashion in relation to other department stores.  Customers have switched to other pricier department stores, and others have gone to value stores such as Kohl's Corp. and Target Corp.  J.C. Penney shares lost almost 75% of their value.  A $1000 investment during 1995 would now be approximately $288.  This loss is not due to a poor economic environment either.  This period was during the largest consumer-spending boom of the decade.  J.C. Penney was also the second worst performer over three years.  Trying to turn things around, Penney hired a new chief executive, Allen Questrom.  Questrom is setting the standards low for Penney's and is hoping for slow steady improvement.

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January, the usual month for clearances, is marked with a 3.7% increase in same-store sales for retailers.  Despite the increase, analysts won't know whether it is due to the clearances, or if it means a sustained rebound from December's low sale figures.  Analyst UBS Warburg projects Wal-mart will have a 5% same-stores gain, a 3.5% increase for K-mart and a 2% increase for Sears, Roebuck & Co.  Discount store sales are expected to have a 4% increase in sales from a year age.  Analysts accounted the increase in sales to favorable weather.  Although signs are now promising for retailers, executive vice president at UBS Warburg, Linda Kristiansen cautioned that "I wouldn't want to draw too many conclusions from January because of the discounting, and that February will serve as a more accurate barometer of overall consumption since it'll include spring merchandise."

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