News — Retail

Out of nowhere, it’s suddenly summer. OK, well, almost! The warm weather is coming in hot and heavy and I’m fully ready to put my winter coats in storage and stock up on a few new summery pieces. Where to buy them, you ask? At Macy’s Friends & Family Sale, natch! As much as I love shopping small and supporting local businesses, I find that larger retailers always reel me in with their seasonal Friends & Family sales. The prices are just too good to resist, so every now and then I indulge—and by indulge, I mean place an absolutely...

Inauguration 2021, as PYMNTS has previously covered, was something of an unusual event when it came to commerce. The COVID-19 pandemic combined with advanced security measures meant that many local Washington, D.C. businesses who count on the influx of tourists every four years actually had to shut down at the mayor’s request. “We are 110 percent supportive of what the mayor is doing to secure the city right now,” David Moran, director of operations for Clyde’s Restaurant Group, told the Washingtonian. “Of course, we’d rather be open and do business, but it’s just the right thing to do.” But where some...

For all that has changed dramatically in the last several weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic, consumers are still looking for the same two core offerings in every transaction, no matter what it is or where it takes place: seamlessness and security. An awful lot of other things have changed all around that core, however. Most Main Street businesses are shut down for the time being; workers are away from their offices; and as a result of social distancing, we as a society have concentrated all the activities once spread across a variety of destinations throughout the day into a...