retail

Protest gear is selling like hotcakes on Amazon. Pepper spray and “Black Lives Matter” merchandise have become some of the e-tailer’s best sellers amid raging demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd. A pocket-sized bottle of pepper spray with a keychain attachment was the top-selling item in Amazon’s “Sports & Outdoors” section as of …

The Big Apple is boarding up — just as it was preparing to reopen. After three days of violence and looting in cities across the country in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death while in police custody, many Big Apple retailers — including Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s, Bloomingdales and Uniqlo — have boarded up their …

Going out of business has helped boost sales at Pier 1 Imports, The Post has learned. The struggling seller of glassware and wicker furniture has been raking in some $20 million a week in online going-out-of-business sales, the CEO revealed at a bankruptcy hearing on Friday. That’s better than any of its Black Friday sales …

Don’t expect it to be the same free-food free-for-all you were used to, Costco shoppers. After temporarily discontinuing the practice in early March, Costco is planning to once again offer free samples at its warehouses — but only on a “slow rollout basis.” Speaking in a third-quarter earnings call on Thursday, Costco CFO Richard Galanti …

US consumer spending took a record nosedive last month as Americans hoarded cash during the coronavirus pandemic, new data show. Personal consumption spending tumbled 13.6 percent in April, marking the largest drop since the feds started tracking the figure in 1959, the US Department of Commerce said Friday. The US savings rate, however, soared to …

The nation’s biggest mattress maker is in danger of becoming a coronavirus casualty this summer — and it’s the company’s private-equity owners that have made it vulnerable. Serta Simmons — a 150-year-old manufacturer that controls nearly 40 percent of the US mattress market — is facing a liquidity crunch as its retailers struggle with state-ordered …

Struggling retailers like Ethan Allen and Raymour & Flanigan have been skirting Gov. Cuomo’s lockdown rules, The Post has learned. The publicly traded Ethan Allen, for example, has been letting customers meet with dedicated sales people, known as “designers,” to browse New York showrooms on an appointment-only basis for weeks, according to employees. “We don’t …

Only seven months till Christmas 2020! Popular jewelry chain Pandora, known for its keepsake charms, is starting the all-important retail countdown by reopening half of its 375 stores in North America with an eye toward ironing out the kinks required to operate under the threat of COVID-19 during the holiday season, The Post has learned. …

Best Buy said on Thursday it expects profit margins to be under pressure in the second quarter, as it spends more on expanding delivery services to support a surge in online shopping from people staying at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company’s shares, which have gained nearly 60 percent in the last two …

Macy’s said on Thursday it could rack up operating losses of up to $1.11 billion in the first quarter, as the department store operator was forced to shut stores due to lockdowns aimed at curbing the spread of the new coronavirus. The health crisis has forced brick-and-mortar retailers to tap credit lines, lay off employees …