DALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) - It’s been said that the early bird gets the worm—but, who cares about worms when retailers are offering great deals on electronics?  And this year, shoppers are getting a turkey day head start.  But, is it too soon?

Tammy Thies, says ‘no’.  “I kind of like shopping”, says Thies, “so I appreciate them being open and giving us this time.”

Closeout retailer Big Lots opened the doors at 7 AM on Thanksgiving and shoppers were already lined up at the Haskell Avenue store.  Sheree Robertson arrived at 4 AM, to make sure her wish list wouldn’t be sold out.

“I want these tablets, right here,” said Robertson, pointing to the Big Lots sales circular.  But, she insists that shopping won’t get in the way of celebrating Thanksgiving.

“After church, then it’s going to be turkey dinner, and then back to the store, again.”

Bass Pro Shops opened at 8 AM—and customers were already waiting, still deciding on the wish lists.  But, what Mike and Sally Roberts seemed to want most was to avoid the Black Friday crowds.

“You go by tickets—and I was number 94, and I parked way back at the back just to get in here, yesterday, so I thought, we’ll get here first thing this morning.”

Economists say retailers are opening their doors earlier to compete for a larger share of shoppers’ holiday cash.  Some have been criticized publicly for the move, but a spokesperson for the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, says for them, Thanksgiving shopping hours are really nothing new.

“Wal-Mart’s open 24/7 and we’ve been open on Thanksgiving for many, many, years,” says spokesperson Daniel Morales.

Clearly, customers are salivating over Thanksgiving Day deals.  But, what about the turkey dinner?

“Turkey’s from Noon until 2,” says Thies, “and then I’ll be back shopping.”

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Nordstrom says it wants to serve you better, so it’s tracking your movements through their stores. The CBS 11 I-Team has learned the retailer is using software to track how much time you spend in specific departments within the store. The technology is being used in 17 Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack stores nationwide, including the NorthPark store in Dallas.

A company spokesperson says sensors within the store collect information from customer smart phones as they attempt to connect to Wi-Fi service. The sensors can monitor which departments you visit and how much time you spend there.  However, the sensors do not follow your phone from department to department, nor can they identify any personal information tied to the phone’s owner, says spokesperson Tara Darrow.

“This is literally measuring a signal. You are not connected to the signal,” says Darrow.

The store calls the information “anonymous aggregate reports that give us a better sense of customer foot traffic” and will ultimately be used to increase the shopping experience for Nordstrom customers. Darrow says the company could use the information to increase staffing during certain high-traffic times or change the layout of a department.

While Nordstrom has been collecting the information since October, the company has not implemented any changes based on the information it has collected. The store has posted a sign at its NorthPark entrance to alert customers and advise them they can opt out by turning off their phones.

(credit: CBS 11 News)

But Nordstorm is not the only North Texas store using this technology. Euclid, the company that provides the service, works with several other stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Yet, while they collect information about you, they are not as willing to reveal their client list, citing privacy concerns. Euclid’s Director of Marketing John Fu would only say it serves a “variety of different kinds of retail stores, ranging from mom & pop stores and coffee shops to large department stores.”

The information Euclid collects is anonymous, according to Fu. No names, addresses, phone numbers or email are reported. However, the information that is collected, Fu says, can help brick and mortar stores better understand their customers shopping preferences and help personalize their shopping experiences.

“For example, if many customers are entering and leaving a store within 5 minutes, that might indicate that there is not enough staff on the floor or that lines at the register are too long. A retailer can use this insight to adjust staffing levels or keep more registers open,” says Fu.

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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – Nordstrom is no longer collecting information from the smart phones of its customers.

Earlier this week, CBS 11 told you about the technology being used at 17 Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack stores across the country, including the NorthPark store in Dallas.

Since September, sensors staged throughout the stores were able to track signals from smart phones as they attempted to connect to Wi-Fi service.   The company said it was using the data to measure foot traffic within different departments of its stores at different times of the day.

Nordstrom spokesperson Tara Darrow confirmed the company stopped using sensors the day after CBS 11 aired a story about the practice.  After the story, customers contacted the company to ask questions and share feedback, according to Darrow.

“We’d been testing Euclid since September and have said all along this was a test for us. We had been discussing what made sense in terms of concluding the test; after 8 months we’d felt like we had learned a lot and determined that it was the right time to end it,” said Darrow in an email.

Nordstrom maintained the sensors never picked up any personal information from customers, but shoppers seemed unhappy with the revelation that their phones were being used to gather collect any data without their permission.

On the CBSDFW.com Facebook page, some shoppers said they would no longer patronize Nordstrom stores.  “They’ve lost me with this. They can track my purchases while Im in the store but dont track me or my phone,” wrote David Lautz.

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NORTH TEXAS (CBS 11 NEWS) – Paper products, detergent, and canned food – those are among the items most of us consider buying in bulk. But Dian Farmer, author of the blog “Grocery Shop for Free,” says there are others things we should consider.

“You have to know what the things you buy on a regular basis cost,” she said. “Then you look for that rock bottom price. That’s the key.”

With Farmer’s help, here’s our top five most surprising things you should buy in bulk.

Gift Cards – At warehouse stores like Sam’s Club and Costco look for what’s known as “extreme” gift cards. These gift cards, usually for restaurants and movie theaters, sell between 20- to 25-percent below face value.

Toothbrushes – Most dentists recommend replacing your toothbrush every three to four months. At a drug store you’ll pay three to five dollars for a single brush. At a warehouse store a pack of eight of the same toothbrush can cost less than ten dollars. Farmer said percentage-wise toothbrushes are among the best deals at a warehouse store.

Prescription Drugs – Due to lower costs, mail order pharmacies have become a popular way for people to fill their prescriptions. When ordering for a chronic ailment, consider a 90-day supply instead of a 30-day supply. The difference could save you as much as 40-percent.

Education – Not only do many pre-schools offer a sibling discount, a handful of colleges also offer a discount to siblings attending at the same time. Plus, for families who qualify for federal student aid, the amount a family is expected to pay stays the same no matter how many children are attending college.

Alcohol – Farmer said alcohol purchased at a warehouse store often will be nearly 30-percent cheaper than at a liquor store. Plus, you don’t have to be a member. What stores like Costco and Sam’s Club stores don’t tell you is legally they have to sell alcohol (along with prescription drugs) to anyone of legal age, even if you don’t pay to be a member.

(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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WACO (CBSDFW.COM) – Shoppers at a Bellmead Walmart Supercenter banded together Friday to catch a crook who allegedly stole an elderly woman’s purse, according to KWTX-TV, channel 10.

Witnesses said Andre Dawson, 27,  snatched the 87-year-old woman’s purse as she and another woman unloaded groceries from a shopping cart Friday afternoon. He then ran with four or five other men in pursuit. A violent struggle ensued, and a woman even fired a gun shot at Dawson, according to KWTX-TV, channel 10. He  stumbled when the shot was fired, but wasn’t hit and was recaptured.

The woman who fired the shot got back in her truck and drove off, witnesses said.

Her case will be forwarded to a grand jury, according to KWTX-TV, channel 10. She went to the Bellmead Police Department Friday night.

“She was released pending further investigation,” police said in a press release Monday afternoon.

Dawson was arrested at the scene, according to Bellmead police Detective Kory Martin.

He remained in the McLennan County Jail Monday in lieu of $2,000 bond, charged with theft of less than $100.

(©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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NEW YORK (AP) — Wal-Mart is trying to get a jump on Amazon’s second annual sales bonanza.

The world’s largest retailer is offering a free 30-day trial on its two-day unlimited shipping service, and an extra month free for paying members, starting Wednesday as it looks to sharpen its attack against the online leader.

Beginning Friday, it will also offer discounts on an array of products that will ramp up as July goes by. These discounts, or what Wal-Mart calls “rollbacks,” typically last 90 days or longer.

Wal-Mart’s moves come as Amazon is expected to launch for the second year a sales bonanza called Prime Day, which it has touted as bigger than “Black Friday.” It underscores how serious Wal-Mart is about boosting its online sales, which have been slowing in the last two years.

Wal-Mart reported in May that global e-commerce sales rose 7 percent in the first quarter, weaker than the 8 percent in the previous quarter and far below the 20 percent increases seen less than two years ago. Wal-Mart’s U.S. business was a little better but still disappointing. That came as the company reported overall strong first-quarter results that were a bright spot in an otherwise somber season for many retailers.

Last July, Wal-Mart responded to Amazon’s Prime Day by lowering the threshold for free shipping for online purchases to $35 from $50 for at least 30 days and offering discounts on thousands of items online. Other stores, including Macy’s, also scrambled to offer discounts on their websites in an effort to compete.

Amazon’s Prime Day last year, on July 15, was tied to its 20th anniversary and the sale was aimed at its Prime members. The company decided after the sale it would become an annual event.

In May, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. trimmed its free-shipping pilot program ShippingPass to two-day delivery from three and cut a dollar off the membership price to $49. It’s the answer to Amazon Prime’s two-day shipping. Amazon’s membership costs $99 a year but it comes with lots of perks like streaming music and video and household subscriptions.

In a blog post early Wednesday announcing Wal-Mart’s plan, Fernando Madeira, president and CEO of Wal-Mart.com’s U.S. division wrote, “Once you start using it, it’s hard not to notice the everyday low prices on the stuff you need and want.”

(© Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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NEW YORK (AP) — The holiday shopping season is losing some of its power in the year’s sales.

November and December now account for less than 21 percent of annual retail sales at physical stores, down from a peak of over 25 percent, and experts believe it’ll keep dropping. Those extra percentage points would have translated into an extra $70 billion more in buying for last year, says Michael Niemira, principal at The Retail Economist.

The season had steadily gained in importance and peaked in the early ’80s, before the dominance of big discounters like Wal-Mart stalled its growth as shoppers began moving away from department stores. Still, the two-month period held its own through the mid-’90s, when online shopping for deals took hold.

“There was a mindset even before online shopping,” said Niemira, whose data goes back to 1967. “But this just accelerated it.”

In general, many people are shopping for the holidays all year long now, mirroring the trend for back-to-school items. Heavy discounting has diluted sales, and with big promotions throughout the year, shoppers no longer hold off making their biggest purchases until the holidays.

This year, the contentious presidential election delayed some shoppers, and with Christmas falling on a Sunday, stores are expecting a bigger number of last-minute buyers. At a busy Target store in Brick, New Jersey on Saturday morning, many shoppers seemed to be picking up small items to use as stocking stuffers. Others were hoping to find a last-minute deal.

“I’m pretty much set for Christmas, so I thought I would come down and see what I could find on sale, like maybe a TV,” Terry Kreft, 38, said as she strolled through the store. She has spent about $600 on gifts this year, taking advantage of discounts during the traditional holiday-season shopping days right after Thanksgiving, called “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday.”

“I was pretty much done with my shopping before December got rolling,” Kreft said.

But a late rush isn’t expected to make up the difference.

“It’s no longer a seasonal business,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at consumer research firm NPD Group Inc. “It’s a yearlong investment for the consumer. And retailers need to change. They have to excite shoppers early in the season and later in the season — and all year long.”

Here’s what’s behind the shift:

SHOPPERS DON’T WAIT TO BUY BIG-TICKET ITEMS: Stores now offer good deals throughout the year on products like TVs and appliances, making waiting until the end of the year less appealing. Deloitte LLP found 30 percent of shoppers planned to wait for holiday sales to buy large gifts, down from 35 percent a year ago.

“People are not holding back and waiting because they find a good price for all the things they are looking for,” said Rod Sides, vice chairman of Deloitte.

Christopher Rogers, a research analyst at Panjiva, which looks at imports, says he has seen a smoothing out of imports during the pre-holiday shopping season from July to November on key items like apparel, toys and furniture.

The shift complicates matters for retailers, which could usually concentrate their efforts on capturing shoppers during the holiday window.

HEAVY DISCOUNTING: With fierce competition online, particularly from Amazon, stores are constantly trying to outdo each other and even undercutting themselves on prices from the previous year. Shoppers have been trained to demand deals, and won’t break the habit.

“The heightened competition being driven by the influence of e-commerce largely is driving prices down on popular holiday items,” said Traci Gregorski, senior vice president of marketing at Market Track. “Retailers know consumers frequently compare prices on these categories online and are discounting more heavily to drive traffic and sales.”

One example: The average price for a TV from Oct. 1 through Tuesday was $829.52, down from $1,009.41 during the same time last year, according to Market Track, which tracked promoted prices across 40 major retailers on over 19,000 TVs.

THE RISE OF GIFT CARDS: Shoppers are giving more gift cards as presents, which skews holiday sales figures since they aren’t booked as sales until they’re redeemed. And most cards no longer have an expiration date.

This holiday season, gift cards were ranked second as a top gift, behind only clothing, according to NPD. Gift cards sales accounted for about 25.4 percent of holiday expenditures last year, up from 13.5 percent in 2003, according to Goldman Sachs and The Retail Economist.

SHOPPERS WANT EXPERIENCES: Major department stores like Macy’s have been seeing shoppers shifting their spending away from traditional merchandise like clothing and more toward gifts that offer experiences like beauty treatments and other services.

NPD found 10 percent of holiday shoppers said they planned to give fewer tangible gifts than last year, and 8 percent said they would not give any tangible gifts. Some 14 percent said they will give more experiences as gifts this year than last year, the research group said.

(© Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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NEW YORK (AP) — Coach will spend $2.4 billion for Kate Spade, tying together two premier brands in the luxury goods sector that have fought to snare younger shoppers.

Noting that crucial demographic, Coach Inc. CEO Victor Luis said in a company release Monday that Kate Spade has a “strong awareness among consumers, especially millennials.”

Coach will pay $18.50 per share of Kate Spade & Company. That’s a 9 percent premium to its Friday closing price of $16.97.

Coach has made an aggressive push to polish its image as a purveyor of opulence, ending many of the promotions it had used to ramp up sales. But to power future growth, it’s begun to build an empire of luxury brands.

In 2015, Coach acquired the high-end footwear company Stuart Weitzman.

Last month the company hired Joshua Schulman, the president of Neiman Marcus’s Bergdorf Goodman division, and put him in the newly created position as president and CEO of the Coach brand. Many took that as a step toward a new company structure with a number of distinct brands under one umbrella, with each brand chief reporting to Luis.

Schulman officially begins his job on June 5.

Shares of Coach appeared headed toward a new high for the year before the opening bell, and Kate Spade’s stock surged more than 8 percent.

(© Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

NEW YORK (AP) — To better incorporate all of the brands it now owns, the storied Coach company of New York is changing its name to Tapestry.

The luxury goods company that came to prominence in the “Mad Men” era now owns brands like Stuart Weitzman and Kate Spade & Co. as well. CEO Victor Luis said Wednesday that the name Tapestry is more inclusive.

Coach acquired Stuart Weitzman in 2015 in a deal valued up to $574 million. It spent $2.4 billion for Kate Spade this year, seeking to broaden its appeal.

“We are now at a defining moment in our corporate reinvention, having evolved from a mono-brand specialty retailer to a true house of emotional, desirable brands,” Luis said in a company release.

A website with the new name, which becomes official at the end of the month, is already up and running.

The change is part of Coach’s pursuit of younger shoppers who may not feel the same draw to store windows on Manhattan’s 5th Avenue.

Coach began as a small workshop in Manhattan in 1941, and became a fashion powerhouse in the early 1960s though innovate designs.

Coach Inc. will also be changing its ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange from “COH,” to “TPR.” Shares of the company declined more than 2 percent to $39.11 in morning trading.

(© Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Walmart hopes to tempt shoppers with online deals before Black Friday.

It’s beginning some online deals Thursday and plans to offer most of its Black Friday deals online starting at 11:01 a.m. CST on Thanksgiving.

Stores will be open all day on Thanksgiving with the deals available there at 6 p.m. local time Walmart is adding a color-coded map of store departments on its circulars in hopes of making it easier for customers to find items.

Retailers are trying to strike a balance between online and in-store deals as shoppers use both.

Target also plans to offer Black Friday deals online starting Thanksgiving morning, but its stores won’t open until 6 p.m. Best Buy stores will open at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving and stay open until 1 a.m. Friday.

(© Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Get ready to shop ‘til you drop without ever getting up from your desk or maybe even leaving your house. It’s Cyber Monday and retailers are trying to entice you to click the “buy” button online.

Cyber Monday shopping is predicted to break records for the 6th year in a row – with shoppers expected to spend as much as $6.6 billion this year.

If last year is any indication, this year will be equally busy for Amazon.com. Representatives with the company say Amazon customers ordered more than 64 million items worldwide on Cyber Monday in 2016.

Spokesperson Allison Leader spent the morning at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Haslet with CBS 11 News. She pointed out the holiday shopping trends this year and some of the hot deals of the day.

“The Echo Show has all of the Alexa functionality that our customers love, plus it has a screen which is really exciting when you’re kicking in the holidays,” Leader said adding, “When your hands are full you can have stuff just showing right up on that screen. It really helps you go about your day.”

Customers can order everything from toothbrushes to toys on Amazon, but of course the latter is expected to fill millions of digital shopping carts. Leader said one popular toy this year offers kids a hands-on experience. “The (littleBits) Droid Inventor Kit is a great way to keep kids interested in science, engineering and tech. It actually comes in a kit, kids can put it together themselves and then they can interact with it,” she said.

A lot of retailers are changing the game on holiday shopping discounts. Some retailers are getting creative.  Walmart, for its part, is planning to throw 20,000 holiday “parties” at its stores, add more toy demonstrations and bring in Santa Claus to take selfies with shoppers. Rival Target has added new store brands and more customer service staff. Best Buy is offering free shipping on all online orders during the holiday season and is expanding its same-day delivery service.

E-commerce giant Amazon among others is benefitting from the increase in online holiday shopping. Here in North Texas some small businesses are leveraging the Amazon Marketplace this season to help generate sales.

Luke Hatteberg, owner of Wayfaren a handcrafted keepsake company, said the holiday season is their busiest time of year. “We’ve been preparing for a couple of months. We have a pretty consistent stream of orders [year-round], but on this four-week stretch up until the holidays everything will pretty much quadruple, so we make hundreds of hundreds of orders.”

According to economists, online spending will account for more than 18 percent of all retail sales in 2017, up from 16.7 percent last year. Web-based spending is expected to increase 13 percent on a year-over-year basis.

Analysts also say most Cyber Monday shoppers wait until the last minute to hit the “buy” button — with the peak time for purchases happening between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.

NEW YORK (AP) — Shoppers will see more personalization based on where they are and what they’ve bought before on the Walmart website, as the retailer and several other stores try to build stronger connections with shoppers used to the customization of Amazon.

Walmart says it’s including a section that highlights top-selling items in a customer’s location, feature services like online grocery that are available in the area, and make it easy for people to buy again items they’ve bought most often in stores and online. It’s part of a site overhaul set for next month.

Building an emotional tie with shoppers starts with emotional content, and that will make people more likely to shop there, said Marc Lore, CEO of Walmart.com’s U.S. division. “We’re going to continue to get smarter over time,” Lore said, though he declined to offer details about further personalization.

Several retailers have made efforts toward personalizing their websites for customers, but large-scale success has been elusive. Often, customers get deluged with offers based on an item they bought just once.

Amazon set the standard with recommending products based on what shoppers bought or searched for early in the dot.com years. But now personalization involves localization and even customizing products, says Sucharita Mulpuru-Kodali, an analyst at Forrester Research.

Some smaller online retailers are farther along in customization. At online clothing retailer Stitchfix, customers fill out questionnaires that allow stylists and algorithms to find appropriate fashions. At Wayfair, shoppers who have been browsing modern furniture won’t be presented with more traditional designs.

Still, some major brick-and-mortar retailers are making inroads. Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said last month at a conference that the company will take “a big step forward” this year in tailoring its merchandise on the site based on the customers’ past shopping and searches. At Best Buy, customers who log into the website and have a local store selected can see if what they’ve searched for recently is available at a nearby location.

“There are different spins of personalization,” said Mulpuru-Kodali. “The challenge for retail is to figure out what, based on all the data, is actually useful.”

Walmart has been relying on Lore — who founded Jet.com, which Walmart later bought — to update its online feel. The company is trying for a more upscale look, and later this year will launch a dedicated Lord & Taylor page as part of their partnership.

(© Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

NEW YORK (AP) — Donna Brunswick drove to a Costco last month to pick up 2 pounds of raw flank steak — not at the wholesale club, but from a truck in the parking lot.

“Typically you wouldn’t buy meat off a random truck,” says Brunswick, a technical manager in Atlanta.

But she says $20 for the slab of beef was a good deal. And she liked the filet mignon she bought from it in December when it was that day’s offering. “The truck meat was delicious,” she says.

The meat didn’t just fall off the back of a random truck. It was sold by Amazon, which already sells just about anything online but now also hawks discounted seafood, Panini presses and more from what it calls the Treasure Truck.

The Amazon Treasure. (credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Disney)

It’s a quirky way for the online retailer to connect with shoppers in person, expand its physical presence and promote itself. Amazon has also used the trucks to try to bring people into Whole Foods, the grocery chain it bought last year. The service debuted two years ago — with the first Treasure Trucks hitting the streets of aDallas last summer — and the trucks now roam nearly 40 cities in the United States and England.

The inspiration, says Treasure Truck Director Margot Johnson, was the ice cream truck, another store on wheels that pops up unexpectedly.

While Treasure Truck sales are a tiny piece of the giant online retailer’s business, the value to Amazon may be in the app downloads the trucks generate, their ability to test what products are hot sellers, and the buzz they create, says Aaron Cheris, who heads Bain & Co.’s retail practice.

“Amazon does a lot of things because they can,” Cheris says.

What’s sold on the trucks? The item is a secret until the day the trucks roll out. People who sign up get a morning text announcing the deal of the day. At the circus-like trucks, which light up and blast music, Amazon workers play games with shoppers and help them take selfies. They have custom designs, like a lobster and lighthouse on the Boston truck; cowboy boots in Dallas; and a race car in Indianapolis. A bubble-blowing machine is usually going.

“It’s so kitschy,” says Evelyn Molina, who bought a $20 bouquet of roses, lilies and other flowers from the Miami Treasure Truck. Molina, who blogs about parenthood at MommyMafia.com, decided to treat herself since it was parked near her workout spot.

The first Treasure Truck hit the streets of Amazon’s Seattle hometown in 2016. It expanded to 25 U.S. cities by last fall, and then a dozen British cities, including London and Manchester, late last year. Amazon won’t say if it plans to expand further.

The trucks go out a couple times a week and spend a few hours roving between the parking lots of malls, office complexes or banks. Amazon rents those spaces, but it can also park in front of its own Whole Foods stores.

Molina got a $5 Whole Foods coupon when she picked up a “Star Wars” toy in December from a truck parked nearby. The coupon had to be used that day, so she bought grapes, chicken tortilla soup and other groceries.

“They totally got me,” Molina says.

Amazon picks what’s sold on the trucks, Johnson says. There are holiday-related goods, such as the Godiva chocolates and dozen red roses it sold before Valentine’s Day; trendy items, like the Instant Pot pressure cooker; or food, such as uncooked shrimp or raw chicken wings. (The trucks have refrigeration, Johnson says.)

But roving stores come with their own perils. Philadelphia’s Treasure Truck went up in flames last month while parked away for the night. No one was hurt, and Amazon says it is investigating how the fire started.

And then there’s weather: Amazon can cancel outings due to rain, snow or other bad conditions.

In early May, the truck in Austin, Texas, was canceled because of heavy rain. Cleo McAllister was bummed she couldn’t get her hands on the $15 moving-and-talking doll version of a Porg, the bird-like creatures from “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” She didn’t want to buy it elsewhere, since the Treasure Truck price was at least $10 cheaper than other stores, including Amazon.com itself. She lucked out several days later, when the Porgs were back. She’s bought other things from the Treasure Truck as well.

“It’s an excuse to get out of the office and do something at lunch instead of sit at my desk,” says McAllister, an office manager.

But she hasn’t been tempted by the steaks or seafood.

“I’m just not one to buy food off the back of a truck,” she says.

(© Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

SEATTLE (AP) — Your Amazon packages, which usually show up in a UPS truck, an unmarked vehicle or in the hands of a mail carrier, may soon be delivered from an Amazon van.

The online retailer has been looking for a while to find a way to have more control over how its packages are delivered. With its new program rolling out Thursday, contractors across the country can launch businesses that deliver Amazon packages. The move gives Amazon more ways to ship its packages to shoppers without having to rely on UPS, FedEx and other package delivery services.

With these vans on the road, Amazon said more shoppers would be able to track their packages on a map, contact the driver or change where a package is left — all of which it can’t do if the package is in the back of a UPS or FedEx truck.

Amazon has beefed up its delivery network in other ways: It has a fleet of cargo planes it calls “Prime Air,” announced last year that it was building an air cargo hub in Kentucky and pays people as much as $25 an hour to deliver packages with their cars through Amazon Flex.

Recently, the company has come under fire from President Donald Trump who tweeted that Amazon should pay the U.S. Postal Service more for shipping its packages. Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, said the new program is not a response to Trump, but a way to make sure that the company can deliver its growing number of orders. “This is really about meeting growth for our future,” Clark said.

Through the program, Amazon said it can cost as little as $10,000 for someone to start the delivery business. Contractors that participate in the program will be able to lease blue vans with the Amazon logo stamped on it, buy Amazon uniforms for drivers and get support from Amazon to grow their business.

Contractors don’t have to lease the vans, but if they do, those vehicles can only be used to deliver Amazon packages, the company said. The contractor will be responsible for hiring delivery people, and Amazon would be the customer, paying the business to pick up packages from its 75 U.S. delivery centers and dropping them off at shoppers’ doorsteps. An Amazon representative declined to give details on how much it will pay for the deliveries.

Olaoluwa Abimbola, who was part of Amazon’s test of the program, said that the amount of packages Amazon needs delivered keeps his business busy. He’s hired 40 workers in five months.

“We don’t have to go make sales speeches,” Abimbola said. “There’s constant work, every day. All we have to do is show up.”

(© Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

NEW YORK (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — Kroger will start to sell some of its products to Chinese shoppers through a website owned by internet giant Alibaba, the latest move by the supermarket chain to boost its digital business.

Kroger, which operates more than 175 stores in Texas alone, is working to catch up with Walmart and with Amazon.com, which bought grocer Whole Foods last year. In recent months, Kroger launched an online delivery service, upped its investment in a British online grocer and agreed to buy a meal-kit company.

(credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Kroger Co. said Tuesday that it will sell items from its store brand Simple Truth on Alibaba’s Tmall site, including Simple Truth nuts and multivitamins. The online store will open Wednesday, Kroger said.

The plan to test an online store geared to Chinese consumers is the first such move overseas by Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the U.S.

Many American companies sell their goods on Tmall as way to reach Chinese customers without having to open physical stores in the country. Costco, for example, sells Kirkland vitamins, nuts and other products on the site.

Kroger Co. shares rose 2.3 percent Tuesday.

(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

NEW YORK (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — Sears, once the nation’s largest retailer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, hurt by falling sales and its massive debt. The owner of Sears and Kmart stores says it will continue to operate through the bankruptcy.

Here’s what shoppers need to know:

___

WILL STORES BE OPEN?

Not all of them. The company will shutter 77 Sears stores, nine of them in Texas, and 65 Kmart stores by the end of the year as part of the bankruptcy. That’s in addition to the 46 stores it is in the process of closing by next month. The company will have more than 500 stores remaining.

___

WILL I BE ABLE TO USE MY GIFT CARD?

Yes, gift cards will continue to be accepted, the company says.

___

CAN I STILL RETURN OR EXCHANGE PRODUCTS?

The return policy isn’t being changed for stores that will remain open. But if you buy something from a closing store, all sales are final and can’t be returned unless the item is defective. Shoppers have seven days to return a defective item to the closing store.

___

CAN I USE MY SEARS CREDIT CARD?

Yes, the company says nothing will change about its credit cards.

(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

NEW YORK (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — The gifts under the tree haven’t been opened yet, but it appears people are already returning their holiday hauls.

Delivery company UPS said that it expects its busiest return day to occur before Christmas for the first time. The company said there are many reasons for the pre-Christmas return boom, including more people buying stuff for themselves that they want to send back.

UPS said it expects to handle 1.5 million returns on Wednesday, and predicts another spike on Jan. 3, when it anticipates it will handle 1.3 million returned packages. Kathleen Marran, who oversees marketing for UPS, said its busiest return day has creeped up earlier and earlier in the past six years as retailers offer their holiday deals weeks before Thanksgiving, giving shoppers more time to change their mind. UPS said it used historical data and information from retailers to come up with its figures.

Retailers have also made it easier for shoppers to return goods. Walmart and Target have been adding special areas in stores to make online returns quicker, and Amazon has opened shops inside Kohl’s department stores where returns can be dropped off.

Other reasons for earlier returns: Hanukkah fell in early December this year and more people are using rental clothing companies for holiday party outfits that they need to send back, said Marran.

(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

NEW YORK (CBSDFW.COM/CNN BUSINESS) – As the Dow posted its biggest daily point gain ever (1,086 points), JCPenney’s stock fell below $1 for the first time since it started trading in 1929.

The 110-year-old Plano-based company hasn’t been profitable since 2010.

JCPenney is $4 billion in debt with a junk credit rating.

Shoppers walk past signage for a JC Penney department store. (credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

With few shoppers coming to stores, JCPenney has been forced to offer steep discounts on clothing to clear its massive inventory glut.

Last month, JCPenney reported a $151 million third-quarter loss and a 5.4 percent drop in sales. The stock has fallen 68 percent this year and nearly 30 percent in December alone.

Jill Soltau, formerly the boss of Jo-Ann Stores, became CEO in October — the company’s fourth in six years.

The company’s leaders said they are considering closing some of JCPenney’s remaining 860 stores.

The company has a $2.1 billion debt payment due in 2023. Wall Street analysts are skeptical about JCPenney’s ability to repay that money.

A spokeswoman for JCPenney declined to comment to CBS 11 or CNN.

The company lost shoppers to cheaper sellers a decade ago and struggled to bring them back as the economy began to rebound.

JCPenney plowed through its cash reserve in an expensive makeover after it hired former Apple Store chief Ron Johnson as its CEO in 2011. The plan didn’t work and Johnson was fired after 17 months on the job.

It lacked the cash to improve stores, buy trendy merchandise or hire more employees.

The company switched its focus several times over the past few years: from older shoppers to younger, trendier ones, back toward middle-aged women.

JCPenney has recently changed its merchandising strategy, chasing proven sales trends instead of filling up stores with inventory. It started selling appliances a few years ago, but that strategy hasn’t paid off either.

(The-CNN-Wire & © 2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company contributed to this report. All rights reserved.)

NEW YORK (CBSNEWS.COM) – Amazon Prime Day kicks off today with 48 hours of deals for tens of millions of consumers who are Amazon Prime members, but the surge in internet traffic is also likely to attract scammers looking to steal your data and payment card details.

“Consumers should proceed with caution,” Monique Becenti, product and channel specialist at SiteLock, said in a statement.

◊◊◊ Click Here To Check Out FOUR Scams Shoppers Should Be On the Lookout For ◊◊◊

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – The holiday shopping season is upon us, but beware there are armed and dangerous holiday Grinches lurking.

In Fort Worth, crooks have already made their presence and intentions known. The area in and around South Hulen has been a recent hot bed for criminals preying on unsuspecting ATM customers, diners and shoppers.

Shopper Don Carlson realizes the potential danger. “Everybody knows that crime picks up around the Christmas shopping season, because people are out and they have money,” he said.

During a six-day period there were a string of eight robberies in the area, with thieves not only taking victim’s money but also assaulting them with hits to the face and over the head with handguns.

2 Teens Arrested, 1 Still Wanted In Series Of Aggravated Robberies in Fort Worth’s Hulen Mall Area

As it stands, Fort Worth police have arrested two teenagers in connection with the attacks, but a third suspect is still on the loose.

#HeadsUp

Do you recognize this suspect? He attacked a customer loading groceries into her vehicle on Nov. 17 on Crowley Rd. Hit her over the head with a gun & stole $.

Please call 817-392-4382 with any information. pic.twitter.com/gwIF59MIAK

— Fort Worth Police (@fortworthpd) November 25, 2019

The latest attack, over the weekend, happened as a woman was loading groceries into her car at the WinCo Foods on Crowley Road.

The victim said a man approached her and demanded her car keys. When said no he hit her over the head with a gun and took cash from her purse. The suspect in that case has not been caught.

Police are offering some safety tips for shoppers that are useful year-round:

• Be sure to locate your keys prior to going to your vehicle
• Avoid overloading yourself with bags and packages
• Ask mall or store security for an escort to your vehicle

After the recent attacks and robberies, Fort Worth police has increased their presence around the Hulen Mall and other busy retail locations.

“Every year, usually after Thanksgiving time, we do have officers specific in areas like the mall – Hulen Mall, Ridgmar Mall – and their presence is there specifically in those area,” explained FWPD Officer Ivan Gomez. “It’s saturated there to prevent crime.”

Anyone with information about the past robberies or wanted suspects is asked to contact Fort Worth police at 817-392-4382.

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Starting May 4 all customers going into Costco warehouses will have to wear face masks.

The retailer announced on its website that all employees, members and guests will have to wear masks that cover their nose and mouth. The only exceptions is for children under the age of 2 and anyone unable to wear a mask because of a medical condition.

Officials with the largest U.S. retailer say they are making the move to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The face coverings will have to be worn in the store “at all times” and members and guests will also still have to practice social distancing.

The change comes as Costco prepares to return to normal operating hours on Monday. The company will continue to set aside an hour for senior citizens and disabled customers — they will be able to shop on Mondays and Fridays between 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.

During the coronavirus crisis Costco has been closing earlier, limiting the number of of people inside the warehouse and giving priority shopping to first responders and healthcare workers.

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM/CNN) – It’s a move reminiscent of the springtime COVID-19 shutdown in Texas and across the nation — some grocery store chains are now re-imposing limits on key items such as toilet paper, paper towels and disinfecting wipes. The companies say their hope is to keep shelves stocked and prevent shoppers from hoarding as they did earlier in the year.

At Kroger, customers can purchase a maximum of two items when it comes to products like bath tissue, paper towels, disinfecting wipes and hand soap. A spokesperson said in an email that the limits began earlier this week and apply in stores and online.

H-E-B in Texas has implemented similar policies in recent weeks. Some H-E-B stores have instituted limits of two on purchases of disinfecting and antibacterial sprays, while other stores have limited toilet paper and paper towels to two.

Christopher Brand, a spokesperson for Giant, a grocery chain in the Northeast, said that the company was “seeing little evidence of stockpiling, and there is no need to create panic.” But since the supply chain “remains challenged,” Giant began last week putting a limit of one on purchases of larger toilet paper and paper towel sizes and four on smaller toilet paper and paper towel sizes.

The three companies say supply chains for securing these items are still strained. Around 19% of paper products such as toilet paper and paper towels and 16% of household cleaning products were out of stock during the week ending November 1, according to data from market research firm IRI.

The moves come as the United States reported its highest number of new coronavirus infections Thursday— at least 108,174, according to Johns Hopkins University. The five highest daily totals of coronavirus cases since the pandemic began have happened in the last week.

Meanwhile, nearly 60% of shoppers say they plan to stock up again as winter approaches, according to a survey of 1,000 shoppers by market research firm Inmar Intelligence conducted during the week of October 14.

(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The CNN Wire & © 2020 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company contributed to this report.)

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NEW YORK (CBSDFW.COM/AP) – Plano-based J.C. Penney is on course to emerge from bankruptcy by Thanksgiving, after a U.S. bankruptcy court approved the sale of the ailing 118-year-old retailer to its two largest landlords and its primary lenders.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas approved a purchase agreement, announced earlier this fall, that has substantially all of J.C. Penney’s retail and operating assets acquired by Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and Simon Property Group through a combination of cash and new term loan debt.

The approval followed a lengthy court hearing on Monday.

Still, the retailer faces an uphill battle to attract shoppers this holiday season as they stay away from the malls and stores for safety reasons and shop online more.

Meanwhile, Amazon and big discounters like Walmart and Target are only getting stronger as they offer low prices and one-stop shopping.

J.C. Penney filed for Chapter 11 in May, becoming one of the largest retailers to do so during the pandemic amid a wave of store closures forced by the spread of COVID-19 infections in the U.S.

More than two dozen retailers have filed for bankruptcy protection since the pandemic temporarily closed stores, restaurants, gyms and other businesses nationwide.

Retailers are worrying about the effects on their business with a surge of new cases all over the country.

The chain will shed nearly a third of its stores in the next two years as it restructures, leaving just 600 locations open.

With no other valid offers in sight, Penney’s fate was hanging by the wire. Its financing agreement expires on Nov. 16 and the sale had to close by Nov. 20 to avoid going out of business.

“Our goal from the beginning of this process has been to ensure J.C. Penney will continue to serve customers for decades to come and this court approval accomplishes that objective,” said Jill Soltau, CEO of J.C. Penney, in a statement.

(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM/CNN) – Walmart is again counting the number of customers at its stores as Texas leads the nation in the number of coronavirus cases — at more than 1 million — and the U.S. continues to hit daily highs.

At the previous height of the pandemic, in April, Walmart restricted the number of people inside stores to 20% capacity. But there was a period when stores stopped counting the number of customers coming and going.

“We know from months of metering data in our stores that the vast majority of the time our stores didn’t reach our self-imposed 20% metering capacity,” said Walmart spokesperson Kory Lundberg. “Out of an abundance of caution, we have resumed counting the number of people entering and leaving our stores.”

Shoppers wearing face masks to protect them from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) at a Walmart store on October 20, 2020. (credit: Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The company is taking the step as the U.S. continues to set new COVID-19 records. Texas was the first state in the nation to record more than one million coronavirus cases. According to data from the COVID Tracking Project, more than 68,500 are hospitalized with the virus across the country, more than at any other point during the pandemic.

As customer counting resumes at Walmart the company is also preparing to being in a wealth of Black Friday shoppers. But the company is spreading the sales over time to limit the number of people in stores.

While customers are being encouraged to shop online and use curbside pickup, shoppers going to brick-and-mortar stores will have a different experience than in years past. Shoppers going to stores will have to form single-file lines to be given sanitized shopping carts at the entrance, people entering the store will be reminded to put their masks on, and social distancing and one-way lanes will be enforced.

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NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) – November 30 is Cyber Monday and this year, the National Retail Federation predicts online and non-store sales will increase between 20- and 30% from last year.

After a hard start to the year, small, local businesses are hoping to see the boost.

“Most retailers like myself, we count on this weekend to actually carry us though the holiday season,” Renew Beauty Founder & Owner
Louise Proulx said. “I really encourage people to shop local. It just means so much to us. It keeps us in business and we appreciate the loyalty and support.”

Louise Proulx, founder and owner of Renew Beauty, had to close her store for three months earlier this year due to the shutdown. It was during this time that she and so many other small business owners affected by the pandemic had to improvise.

“I actually had to pick up all of our product, set it all up in my garage and learn very quickly how to do an online store,” Proulx said.

Through social media, she updated her customers and showcased the services and products sold on the website. She said her website did so well that even after she reopened her shop, she kept it going. “We’ve already noticed just from this past weekend that our online sales are up substantially,” she said.

Shopper Danielle Horton expressed the feelings of many saying, “With everything that’s going on I think people are really trying to stay inside, stay safe.”

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