Richard Hastings Last Quotations

Sears did a superb job on seasonal holiday promotions in circulars and TV ads and enjoyed a strong November. Sears comparable sales gains compares favorably to last year when November 2003 same-store sales were down 3.6 percent,

Management has been defending the brand. If we look at the last six years, it's become clear that they have made no progress.

The outlook for them this year is the best it's been in about the last three years.

It's basically the same formula that we saw last year because once again there's an absence of a must-have item,

If Wal-Mart's December comparable sales do go up 3 percent, that means they did much better in the last two weeks of the month,