In a Pandemic Year, Amazon and Target Schedule Their Big Holiday Sales—in Mid-October - Barron's

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On the retail calendar, Christmas now comes before Halloween. This past week, Target announced its Target Deal Days will occur on Oct. 13 and 14 as its kickoff to the holiday shopping season—the same days Amazon.com is running its Prime Day promotion. Target’s news came a day after Amazon announced its online sale on those dates. Prime Day normally takes place in summer, but was moved because of the pandemic.

The concurrent sales are no coincidence. Prime Day is a huge event for Amazon, and one that other retailers have taken aim at in recent years. Retailers see this as the opening salvo for an already unorthodox holiday shopping season. Target said this season will “feature nearly one million more deals than last year, Black Friday pricing all November long, and an extended Price Match Guarantee.” Most items will have in-store or curbside pickup.

Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and other stores have already announced they won’t open on Thanksgiving this year because of the pandemic, which makes doorbusting promotions and Black Friday crowds not the best idea. Of course, that doesn’t mean sales won’t be happening; they’ll just be pushed online, where much of retail has been this year. Earlier last week, Walmart said it would hire 20,000 seasonal workers in its e-commerce fulfillment centers.

E-commerce has already altered the Christmas rush with Cyber Monday. But in recent years, retailers have been moving deals forward, even before Thanksgiving, and extending holiday shopping in hopes of grabbing more dollars, which may be critical in a year when economic woes weigh on shoppers’ budgets.

Next Week

Monday 10/5

Cisco Systems and Nvidia hold analyst events.

Vontier holds a virtual investor conference ahead of its spin-off from Fortive. Vontier, an industrial firm focused on transportation and mobility solutions, is expected to begin regular trading on the NYSE under the ticker VNT on Oct. 9.

The Institute for Supply Management releases its Services Purchasing Managers’ Index for September. Consensus estimate is for a 56.1 reading, slightly below the August figure.

Tuesday 10/6

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell gives the keynote address at the 62nd annual National Association of Business Economics meeting. The theme of the virtual conference is “Global Reset? Economics, Business, and Policy in the Pandemic.”

Levi Strauss and Paychex report earnings.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals and Ball hold virtual Investor Days. Alexion management will discuss its pipeline, while Ball executives will review trends in their industry, aluminum packaging and aerospace technologies.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for August. Economists forecast 6.25 million job openings on the last business day of August, down from 6.62 million in July.

The Census Bureau reports the trade deficit for August. Expectations are for a $66.6 billion trade deficit, similar to the July data.

Wednesday 10/7

Lamb Weston Holdings reports first-quarter fiscal 2021 results.

Costco Wholesale reports September sales data.

The Federal Open Market Committee releases minutes from its monetary policy meeting in mid-September.

The Federal Reserve reports consumer credit data for August. Total outstanding consumer debt is expected to rise by $14 billion to an estimated $4.14 trillion. After a lockdown-induced hiatus in the spring, consumer debt has risen for three consecutive months and is now just shy of the all-time high of $4.2 trillion set in February 2020.

Thursday 10/8

Domino’s Pizza holds a conference call to discuss third-quarter earnings.

Analog Devices and Maxim Integrated Products hold shareholder meetings to seek approval for their proposed merger, first announced in July. Analog Devices is expected to purchase all outstanding shares of Maxim in an all-stock transaction that values the combined enterprise at $68 billion.

The Department of Labor reports initial jobless claims for the week ending Oct. 3. Weekly jobless claims averaged 867,250 in September, the lowest since February.