If what’s being sold is an indication of what’s important in the market today, then Bed Bath & Beyond can help us with recent trend development. In the past two weeks sales of bread making machines, vacuum cleaners, and coffee grounds are what the new trends are about. At Bed Bath & Beyond, bread machines are up 400%, vacuums are up 100% and enough coffee grounds in pods and beans have been sold to make 10 million cups of coffee. Guess that means that while the fresh bread is baking in the oven, folks are sipping on their coffee and vacuuming their carpet. Sales have not been bad when you consider other companies are struggling to have anything in sales at all since their shops are closed.

Bed Bath & Beyond Tough Decisions

Bed Bath & Beyond did have to do some major juggling to keep afloat when the shutdown that impacted the nation first happened following the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic. Among the crucial decisions they needed to make was the move to furlough some of its employees and close some of their stores when the pandemic first started. Bed Bath and Beyond said at first that the furlough would need to last until May 2.

However, as of late April, Bed Bath & Beyond has already had to call back hundreds of their employees to staff 25% of the stores that were converted to fulfillment stores to meet the order demands from online customers purchases. Many of the stores also have pick up locations for easy contactless curbside pick-up service.

The furlough, for those still remaining on it, has been extended until May 16. Bed Bath & Beyond is paying 100% of healthcare premiums for employees enrolled in such programs until further notice. There is also a temporary continuance of pay cuts of 30% to executives.

Sales Rise on Price Slashing

Decisions at the corporate level to allow for some price slashing is keeping customers coming in droves (up to 85% increase in online sales). Many items available on the Bed Bath & Beyond website are 50 to 75% off and when you log on you are offered a 20% coupon for signing in.

New Players, Plans and Growth

The team at the top is relatively new, but experienced. Mark J. Tritton, Chief Executive Officer of Bed Bath & Beyond was previously with Target, Nordstrom and Nike. Stock market prices rose 11% after he was brought on board in October of 2019. He is handpicking his team and is looking for new leaders that will bring fresh perspectives and that are new innovators for change.

John Hartmann is the new Chief Operating Officer of Bed Bath & Beyond. He was previously with True Value and has also been with Home Depot, Cardinal Health, and the FBI.

They are making tough decisions to keep the company in a favorable and fluid position to outlast the coronavirus situation. Stocks rose 32% as of mid-April. Comparisons to any time before that is like comparing watermelons to cherries. We are in unprecedented times and any progress is worthy of note.

Bed Bath & Beyond’s decision to proceed with the online sales market has proven to be successful, as has the decision to convert some of their stores to fulfillment centers. The decision to turn stores into fulfillment stores doubles the retailers digital order capacity, making it more competitive in the online market.

Cramer previews earnings reports for the trading week of April 27

CEO Tim Cook is comfortable with the numbers for Apple Watch

Apple is well-known not to reveal their sales figures for each product. This has left market experts wondering if the Apple Watch is a hit or a miss. The IDC has reported that they are under what the company expected. Apple's CEO, Tim Cook says that they are "just fine".

The market for wearable technology is small. There are only 4 companies. The most popular competitor is FitBit. While we don't know the sales numbers, we do know that Apple has shipped over 70% fewer units in the last year.

iPhone 6 will drive Apple Christmas sales to a healthy gain. KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that he predicts 71.5 million iPhone 6 sales in the fourth quarter of 2014. That is a large percentage gain (40%) over the same quarter last year and almost a doubling (82%) of the sales in the previous quarter.

Chipotle Mexican Grille Inc. which has outperformed all other members of the S&P 500 Restaurant Index so far, sees sales coming in soft next year. Growth has been near 15% for stores opened in the last year but going forward, the company predicts sales to grow closer to 5%. Analysts had thought a slow down in the 7.2% growth range was coming. So they did see this trend prior to the company discussing it today while reporting its most recent quarter.

The stock, ticker symbol CMG moved lower in after-hours trading. The stock has climbed 23% this year to date. Analyst are hoping the soft sales growth projection is the company being conservative at this time and the actual numbers will be better. Some till remain positive on the stock with Buy ratings. Strong growth in the past was attributed to the healthy nature of their meals and the ability of customers to customize their orders.

English: World GDP growth rate and GDP growth rate of total OECD countries. Data source: World Bank Group and OECD. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

U.S. household debt drops and retails sales grows amidst higher taxes

There is good news for all the retailers in the country since both the sequestration and the tax hikes along with rising fuel prices have failed to stunt the growth in retail sales across the board. As per the latest news update, total retail sales have jumped up by an annual rate of 1.1% in the month of February 2013. In addition, consumers are found to be bold enough to buy increasing number of cars amidst rising taxes.

Burger King (Photo credit: jhmostyn)

Burger King Restaurant Sales Are Up

Burger King does well as McDonalds falters.

Last quarter, Burger King did better than expected, in contrast to McDonalds worst performance in restaurant sales in nearly a decade.

Executives from the company did not say whether increased restaurant sales and new customers were from McDonalds or other competitors, such as Wendy's, KFC, A&W, Hardees, Carl Jr.s, and other fast food establishments.

Daniel Schwartz, CFO says they expect to keep the share of business they have gained, and sales have continued to grow this October.

Herbalife Ltd. (HLF) Has Year of Growth

Herbalife Ltd (HLF) headquartered in the Grand Cayman is a network marketing company. Those two facts should cause everyone to wonder how it has performed so well over the past 12 months, but that is exactly what it has done. The company sells weight management and supplements in addition to energy and sports products.