IN BRIEF
NEW YORK
Retailers stepping up holiday discounts
With little more than two weeks left until Christmas, retailers who have seen sales drop off since the holiday shopping season’s strong start are feeling the pressure of the final stretch.
Based on early reports, the past weekend was an improvement from a week earlier, but stores expect many shoppers to wait until the final few days before Dec. 25, especially since Christmas falls on a Tuesday.
“This weekend was better than last weekend, but not good enough,” said Marshal Cohen, chief analyst at market research company NPD Group Inc. “We are going to see more aggressive promotions.”
After a strong Thanksgiving weekend, the official start of the holiday shopping season, business has slowed even more than normal, resulting in mixed November results for retailers. Now, stores are stepping up discounts and other come-ons to get shoppers to buy.
CAMARILLO, Calif.
Gasoline prices tumble over past three weeks
The national average price for gasoline went down about 9 cents over the last three weeks, according to a survey released Sunday.
The average price of regular gasoline on Friday was $3 a gallon, mid-grade was $3.12 and premium was $3.24, oil industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said.
The nation’s lowest price was in Tulsa, Okla., where a gallon of regular costs $2.74 on average. The highest was in San Francisco at $3.42, according to the Lundberg Survey.
LOS ANGELES
imeem networking site signs music deal
Social networking Web site operator imeem Inc. has signed a licensing deal with Universal Music Group to offer free streaming of music and videos by the record company’s slate of artists in exchange for a share of online advertising revenues, the companies said Sunday.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The pact is the latest example of record labels betting on online ads as a source of revenue amid sinking sales of CDs.
The Web operator already has similar licensing deals with the other three major record labels. Collectively, the four biggest recording companies account for more than 85 percent of music sales so far this year.
