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The retail (special lines) industry is comprised of a wide variety of subgroups and companies that cannot be analyzed and evaluated as a broad category, and these stocks must be individually evaluated. Results for the holiday shopping season in 1998 were satisfactory for most retailers, and the US economy is poised for growth in 1999 which augers well for the retail industry. These stocks are not strong in 1999 and investors need to be selective both for the short and long term.

Consumer confidence in the US has decreased somewhat during the 3rd qtr of 1998, but interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve Board should keep the economy going and a recession seems unlikely. Success in the retail industry in the 4th qtr of 1998 will depend on execution and the 1998 holiday shopping season, although some retail sectors are mixed. Investors need to focus upon growth companies for their selections.

Speciality retailers with strong merchandising talents will outperform their competition in 1994 and 1995. Factors such as moderate inflation and a weak US dollar will create a business climate that can be exploited by those retailers with lean, competitive operations. Investments in this industry should be focused on companies that have high ratings for financial strength and that have capital returns that are above the industry average.

The diversified retail industry can offer investors with various portfolio goals at least one strong choice. Low interest rates are boosting the housing and home improvement markets. Companies aiming to expand in the unsaturated urban markets or in Canada and Mexico due to the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement may be good investment choices. Potential investors should study individual Timeliness ranks.

The specialty retail industry will improve during the 1990s, as retailers continue to streamline their businesses and use high technology to keep inventory low. The economy seems to be improving in Nov 1993, and consumers are beginning to spend again. Another indication of consumer confidence is in the show of colored apparel planned for spring 1994. The stocks within this group should do well from 1993 to 1998, as retailers establish better working relationships with manufacturers.

Industry analysts said that multi-channel retailing rely on logistics consulting companies, such as Richfield, Ohio-based Sedak Management Consultants. Spiegel Inc. and Eddie Bauer Inc. hired Sedak to build a new logistics center in Groveport, Ohio.

The news that bankrupt Downers Grove, IL-based Spiegel Group on May 24 agreed to sell its flagship general merchandise business to Hinsdale, IL-based Pangea Holdings wasn't much of a surprise [...]

GETTING HOUSE IN ORDER: Benetton's shareholders Tuesday approved an internal reorganization plan to boost efficiency and competitiveness at the company. The firm will group together certain operations into three clearly [...]

NEW YORK -- Bankrupt Spiegel Inc.'s net loss continued to mount in the third quarter on shrinking top-line results. For the 13 weeks ended Sept. 27, the Downers Grove, Ill.-based [...]

Publicly traded cataloger/retailer Spiegel hid information about its shaky financial state for more than eight months, according to a report issued Sept. 12. Independent examiner Stephen Crimmins of law firm [...]

NEW YORK -- With the mercury down, men's wear is heating up. All the major men's wear retailers posted increases in comparable-store sales in September, and many other stores also [...]

For the past five years, Eddie Bauer 'has been all over the place,' says senior vice president/chief marketing officer Engle Saez. The Redmond, WA-based apparel and home goods cataloger/retailer has [...]

NEW YORK -- Bankrupt Spiegel Inc. on Monday filed its August operating report with the Securities and Exchange Commission reflecting a loss for the month, and acknowledged that certain matters [...]

NEW YORK -- It was the credit card business that paved the way for Spiegel's credit crunch, but it was fear that led to the company's decision to hide for [...]

SPIEGEL SINKS: Reorganization costs stemming from its bankruptcy proceedings pushed the The Spiegel Group Inc. deeper into the red in the second quarter. For the three months ended June 28, [...]

Spiegel Inc., the bankrupt catalogue retailer that could not sell its subprime private-label portfolio, will now have a third-party servicer to take over the loans and try to collect on [...]

The distressed firm posted a net loss of $131 million, or 99 cents, for the three months ended March 29, compared with a $43.3 million loss, or 33 cents, in [...]

March 11, 2003 President Bush signed legislation creating a national do-not-call registry. The bill allows the FTC to collect fees from telemarketers to fund the registry, which will cost about [...]

NEW YORK-Judge Cornelius Blackshear of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved several key motions by Spiegel lawyers in the week following the retailer's Chapter [...]

NEW YORK-A smaller, more agile retailer may emerge as the result of Spiegel's journey through Chapter 11 reorganization. With William Kosturos, a turnaround specialist who is serving as chief restructuring [...]

The owner of the Spiegel catalog and Eddie Bauer specialty chain had been under increasing pressure in the past month due to the inability of its credit card operation to [...]

Spiegel Group Inc. announced Monday that it has filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the federal Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District [...]

ROLEX DEPARTURE: Martha Nype Webster has left Rolex Watch USA, sources told WWD. Company executives could not be reached for comment. Webster spent 19 years at W magazine, rising to [...]

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill.-Spiegel Inc. said last week in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it does not expect to have sufficient funds to finance its operations in the future, [...]

Kosturos was named chief restructuring officer and interim chief executive of the firm. As ceo, he will succeed Martin Zaepfel, who is retiring after a stormy tenure at Spiegel that [...]

Faced with an April 1 deadline for selling or shuttering the bank through which it issues private-label credit cards and general-purpose MasterCards, Spiegel Inc. is notifying customers that it will [...]

According to the latest SEC filing, Spiegel is anticipating a liquidity crunch as a result of its inability to meet certain minimum-performance requirements in connection with some of its asset-backed [...]

Sometimes it's nice to have well-to-do family back in the old country. Without it, who knows what condition THE SPIEGEL GROUP would be in. Even with a well-endowed German parent, [...]

The Spiegel Group, once a shining example for catalog firms everywhere, is now struggling to survive. Its financial position is so precarious that were it not for the support of [...]

Considering that most of the publicly traded consumer catalogers and cataloger/retailers tracked by Catalog Age do the bulk of their business in the final three months of the year, it's [...]

NEW YORK -- Its inability to rejuvenate its Eddie Bauer unit pushed The Spiegel Group more deeply into the red in the fourth quarter. The Downers Grove, Ill.-based catalog retailer, [...]

Cataloger reduces circulation in two of its units, and copes with the impact of Sept. 11 tHE SPIEGEL GROUP was braced for a difficult fall even before Sept. 11. Sales [...]

NEW YORK -- Weak sales and bad debt led The Spiegel Group to report a third-quarter loss and severely reduce its fourth-quarter outlook. The Downers Grove, Ill.-based catalog retailer said [...]

DOWNERS GROVE, IL Pummeled by falling sales, eroding margins, higher costs and rising debt levels, second-quarter profits at direct-mailer Spiegel Inc. tumbled by 80.5 percent, to $5.0 million from $25.8 [...]

NEW YORK -- Stung by sales shortfalls in every merchandising category, The Spiegel Group Tuesday reported an 80.5 percent plunge in second-quarter profits. The catalog-based multichannel retailer, based in Downers [...]