By Barbara Thau
The decade’s fastest growing demographic group is catching the attention of the nation’s biggest retailers.
Retailers such as Macy’s, Kohl’s and J.C. Penney are churning out home collections from Latin celebrities and devising an array of marketing programs to court favor with Hispanic shoppers.
Merchants are stepping up efforts to target this diverse ethnic demographic in a bid to capture their share of this hefty—and growing—consumer group, they said.

By Barbara Thau
It’s that time of year when home furnishings retailers and industry pundits size up the retail sector as they head into the make-or-break holiday selling season.
This year, the analysis has taken on a feverish pitch as the business community tries even harder to make sense of the common themes, concerns—even opportunities—that have emerged amid the unprecedented meltdown in the economy.
Here’s a snapshot of the hot-button issues that have been discussed during recent retail conferences.
Luxury Lapses

By Nathan Weber
NEW YORK–Executive retailers and vendors of home furnishings expressed a slight increase in confidence during the first quarter, although most remain less than upbeat.
The quarterly HFNdex, a proprietary survey measuring senior management’s perspectives on the state of the economy and the prospects of their own companies, rose nearly six points to 41.7. But because any measure under 50 reveals a preponderance of pessimistic over optimistic views, the reading reflects an outlook that remains gray.

By Nathan Weber
NEW YORK–To state the obvious, it wasn’t a very good year for sales of home furnishings.
Retail sales of virtually every broad area of home goods were either down or flat, with the exception of housewares, which grew 3.2 percent. But that was not much higher than the year’s average inflation rate, which grew around 3 percent (depending on which measure is used). Which means that, in “real” dollars, even housewares sales were no cause for celebration.
What happened?

By Michael Rudnick
NEW YORK–Wall Street was not a hospitable place for the home furnishings sector last year.
Home goods stocks sank in 2007 and lagged the broader market under the weight of slowed consumer spending due to mounting pressures from the housing slowdown, the subprime mortgage crunch and high fuel prices.
According to HFN’s exclusive report on stock trading in 2007, the HFN Index, composed of 25 retailers and 16 manufacturers, slid 13.88 percent, significantly underperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average gain of 6.34 percent.

NEW YORK–Concerns about environmental degradation and less availability of discretionary spending funds combined to alter consumers’ holiday shopping this year.
An annual study by KPMG LLP found that consumers were more willing this year to consider a “green quotient” in products and check a product’s country of origin before making a purchase. However, in light of a worsening economy, fewer shoppers this season said they spent more than they had last season.