News

Blaming hurricanes and a later Labor Day, Hingham, MA-based apparel cataloger/retailer The Talbots (NYSE: TLB) reported sagging sales of full-priced merchandise, which resulted in lower net income.

Merrimack, NH-based Brookstone (Nasdaq: BKST), which mails the Brookstone, Hard-to-Find Tools, and Gardeners Eden catalog titles, posted a wider net loss for the third quarter, although its direct marketing segment posted double-digit sales gains.

Framingham, MA-based office supplies cataloger/retailer Staples (Nasdaq: SPLS), which includes the Quill and Medical Arts Press catalog divisions, grew its third-quarter sales 12%.

EBay is the latest online-only marketer to expand into print. The San Jose, CA-based Internet auction site mailed

For brick-and-mortar retailers, Black Friday–the busiest shopping day of the holiday season–has traditionally been the day after Thanksgiving. For online merchants, though, Black Friday this year is likely to be Dec. 17

Two weeks after announcing that it would cut up to 800 call center positions during the next year, Office Depot announced additional layoffs.

Although it

Philadelphia-based Broder Bros., a wholesaler of imprintable sportswear, more than doubled its third-quarter revenue, thanks to two significant acquisitions. Net sales for the three months ended Sept. 25 were $231.3 million

Due to an accounting error relating to the buyer’s club programs of three of its catalogs, Edgewater, NJ-based Hanover Direct is restating five years’ worth of financial statements.

If your October sales were softer than expected, the glut of political mailings may be to blame. According to New City, NY-based mail tracking service U.S. Monitor, direct mail pieces in October took an average of 9.84 days to reach customers, compared with 8.65 days in October 2003.