Matthew Shay

Port employers and the union representing East and Gulf coasts dockworkers begin a two-day meeting in New Jersey to prevent a strike that would disrupt maritime commerce along the entire U.S. Eastern Seaboard. Talks on a labor deal for six of the 10 busiest ports stopped in June when the...

Mother’s Day 2023 is expected to be a triumph for retailers, as consumers were likely to splurge a record $35.7 billion on gifts to honor the significant women in their lives. What Happened: The $35.7 billion figure, issued by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights &...

The retail sector as a whole performed "great" in the first half of 2018, and the outlook for the full year is even stronger than expected, according to Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation. What Happened Total retail sales were expected to rise between 3.8...

Although all festivities around the Thanksgiving Day are now past us, the shopping bonanza is far from over. Shoppers thronged stores during the Thanksgiving weekend, the four-day period starting Thursday. Online behemoths such as Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and eBay Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY) as well...

The holiday season is around the corner, with the Black Friday kicking it off later this week. Black Friday is observed annually on the Friday that follows Thanksgiving Day. Although the concept of Black Friday has existed since 1932, it rose to prominence as one of the busiest shopping...

A recent National Retail Federation survey indicated that over 171 million people in the United States plan to celebrate Halloween in the current year. That means 69.1 percent of the surveyed Americans will celebrate, while the remaining 30.9 percent people are not planning to join the rest. The...

Heart-sick romantic or hardened cynic, you cannot escape Valentine's Day. The holiday not only has emotional importance for many people, it represents an important annual uptick for the retail industry. The National Retail Federation's latest annual Valentine's Day spending survey says total...

Despite a shorter-than-usual holiday season this year, industry observers expect up to 140 million people do do their holiday shopping, both in-person and on-line, during the upcoming, four-day-long Thanksgiving break. A preliminary shopping survey by the National Retail Federation notes that...

The upcoming holiday season will be the shortest in over a decade, with just 26 shopping days squeezed between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That's six fewer days than last year. But in spite of a compressed shopping season, there are signs the retail sector is looking forward to a happy ending...