Barneys took on debts of about $500 million to fund the purchase. Since then, economic woes have crimped Barneys' sales, and it has been without a CEO for the past 18 months.

Istithmar now is exploring a possible Barneys restructuring, with the retailer tapping investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners to advise it. One approach typically taken in such situations is to wipe out company equity, while delivering control to debtholders.

Hedge-fund manager Richard Perry is expected to be the key player in any negotiations; his hedge fund holds a controlling position in Barneys' senior debt. "There are conversations, but no process," said one person familiar with the matter, adding not to "expect anything imminent."

Sears (SHLD, Fortune 500) has not officially revealed its Black Friday sales. However, the company confirmed to CNNMoney.com that two of its post-Thanksgiving deals include a Samsung 40-inch 1080p LCD HDTV for $599.99, "Only while quantities last, minimum three per store, no rainchecks."

The other is a Kenmore 3.5-cubic-foot high-efficiency washer and 5.8-cubic foot dryer pair for $579.98, "Limit four per store, no rainchecks."

"Sure, you probably have more, but how do you put out a circular to millions of households and only have three?," Dworsky asked.

The difference can be subtle. "The image contrast ratio might be 20,000 in a derivative model versus 30,000 in a standard model," he said. "Most consumers probably won't even notice the difference."

A report earlier this month in Consumer Reports called attention to HDTV models from Samsung and Sony advertised in Black Friday deals that appear to be "derivatives." The report said these one-off TVs "with unfamiliar model numbers" are usually cheaper than the standard model in their class.

Costco says it is no longer carrying Coca-Cola products in its stores nationwide due to a pricing dispute with the beverage maker. The Issaquah, Wash.-based wholesale club operator would not discuss the matter further. But a Costco executive confirmed Monday that the company is no longer carrying products from the world's largest soft drink maker.

Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. says it won't comment on on-going negotiations but said Costco is an important customer that it is committed to working with "in a spirit of fairness."

The company is researching the option, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gregg Steinhafel said yesterday in an interview at Target's Minneapolis headquarters, adding that the retailer has no definitive plans or sites for such stores. "We know that consumers in dense urban areas love Target," Steinhafel said. "We have to work harder at trying to get a smaller Target in those areas."

Target plans to open more U.S. stores in metropolitan areas as well as remodel existing locations to add groceries and encourage more frequent visits. On its earnings call yesterday, the company said it's planning for a "modest" decrease in fourth-quarter sales at stores open at least a year as shoppers continue to pare discretionary spending.

Tests at Target's Atlantic Terminal store in Brooklyn and two or three other urban sites may help the retailer prepare for smaller formats, Steinhafel said. At those locations, Target pruned the number of items available by as much as 25 percent by cutting certain sizes and colors of products to ensure the stores are well-stocked, he said. Target’s general merchandise stores average 128,000 square feet.

"The initial sales targets were astronomical," said Dann Murphy, who took over as general manager as his predecessor left eight months after the store opened. Targets for the six-story outlet’s restaurant and "retail experience," which includes designing personalized Barbie dolls, have been revised down three times since its opening in March.

"Every retail store operates at a loss when it opens, but they've been open long enough that it should be working by now," said Paul French, founder of Shanghai-based market research company Access Asia. "They overestimated their brand recognition in China. I just think the concept is wrong."

Mattel has revised the overall sales target for the store to between 65 percent and 70 percent of original expectations, said Murphy. The store has started meeting its sales targets on product sales, including dolls and toys, after the targets were downgraded twice, he added.

The retailer, which has been struggling with its own brand issues as well as the recession, now has 12,500 employees compared with 18,000 at the end of 2006.

Earlier this month, Liz Claiborne posted a much wider-than-expected third-quarter loss, part of a run of losses the retailer has been experiencing. Chief Executive Bill McComb at that time stopped short of saying the company could return to profitability next year, but did indicate that new plans for the Liz namesake line, in which J.C. Penney Co. (JCP) will be the only U.S. department store to carry and expand the brand, should allow that part of the business to show earnings in 2010.

St. Louis-based Save-A-Lot, a wholly owned subsidiary of Supervalu Inc. (NYSE: SVU), plans to double its 1,200 U.S. store count in five years, and metro Atlanta is one of the markets it will target, said Rick Meyer, vice president of market development.

"A key part of our growth strategy is the Southeast, and that includes greater Atlanta," he said. "We see an opportunity in Atlanta. We have refocused on Atlanta and we feel excited about that."

More than half of Apple's 40 to 50 new retail locations in 2010 will be outside the U.S., including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France and China, he said.

"Retail is hard. And from Day One we've approached this retail strategy very humbly," Mr. Johnson said. Apple stores, which are about 6,000 square feet on average, generated $6.6 billion of Apple's $29.9 billion in revenue for 2009, he said. Some 170 million visitors entered one in the same period.

Overseas locations are likely to be where Apple concentrates on its significant-store strategy, said Charlie Wolf, a Needham analyst who follows the company's retail moves.

Retailing executives and analysts offer varying, occasionally wacky, explanations. The one favored by many of them is that consumers consider shoes more of a necessity than, say, dresses, cuff links or handbags, so people feel less guilt about buying them.

"I would argue you wear out shoes more than you wear out handbags," said Marie Driscoll, an analyst with Standard & Poor's Equity Research who is adept at rationalizing her own shoe purchases. Living in New York, she walks everywhere. "I use the argument, 'If I spend $150 to $300 on shoes, this is my car.'"

*****

Among the more curious explanations proffered for the relative strength of shoe sales is that women -- who make up the lion's share of the American shoe market -- get an emotional lift from shoe shopping in a way they do not when trying on jeans and cocktail dresses. "Shoes democratize fashion," said Kathryn Finney, who writes the Budget Fashionista blog. "You probably can't buy a Zac Posen dress if you wear a size 14, but you can buy a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes."

Or, as Jennifer Black, president of research company Jennifer Black and Associates, put it: "It's just fun to shop for shoes. Maybe part of the fun is you don't feel fat. And you don't get hot. It's exhausting trying clothes on, especially the skinny jeans."

The Mitchell family is now wearing a new hat -- that of a white knight. Late Monday night, the Mitchells, operators of the largest family-owned specialty store in the U.S. with sales of $100 million, inked an 11th-hour deal to acquire the assets of Wilkes Bashford, which simultaneously filed a voluntary Chapter 11 petition. The deal by Ed Mitchell West LLC is for $4.6 million in cash and is subject to higher offers and bankruptcy court approval. A contingency of the sale is that the purchase be completed by Nov. 30 in order to maximize business during the holiday selling period, according to Bob Mitchell, co-president of Mitchells.

The San Francisco-based Wilkes, a men's wear institution that opened its doors in 1966, operates a seven-story flagship on Union Square as well as a store in the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, Calif. At the end of last month, the struggling Wilkes closed its store in Carmel, Calif., and, the month before that, a Mill Valley, Calif., unit also was shuttered.

If its offer is successful, the Mitchell family, which owns Mitchells in Westport, Conn.; Richards in Greenwich, Conn., and Marshs in Huntington, N.Y., would gain a beachhead on the West Coast and immediately make it a formidable force within the luxury men's wear community in San Francisco and the surrounding area.

The researchers found that shoplifting — or what's euphemistically known as product "shrinkage" — jumped 5.9% in the past year at the more than 1,000 retail chains the group surveyed globally. In previous years, the increase hovered at 1.5% annually. Though the problem was documented across all regions, the steepest increases occurred in North America (8.1%), the Middle East (7.5%) and Europe (4.7%). In terms of total losses, retailers in North America topped the charts at $46 billion, followed by Europe's $44 billion and $17.9 billion in the Asia-Pacific region. In North America and Latin America, store owners and employees were the leading pilferers; in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, it was customers who were swiping the most loot.

Some 16 percent of respondents said they'd begin their holiday shopping the day after U.S. Thanksgiving this year, up from 10 percent in 2007 and 2008 and an earlier high of 13 percent in 2006, according to a holiday spending survey from the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs.

The ICSC has forecast holiday sales to rise about 1 percent to 2 percent this year in one of the more bullish predictions.

"ICSC Research thinks the holiday spending performance will be better than these pre-season consumer expectations, which is often the case following business cycle turning points in the economy," said Michael Niemira, ICSC's director of research and chief economist, in a statement.

Club 21, the brand's global licensee for ready-to-wear and accessories since 2003, announced yesterday that it had reluctantly "taken the decision not to invest further in its relationship with Luella Bartley Limited." "This is a very disappointing situation for everyone involved with the brand," Bartley said. "I very much appreciate the support that [Club 21 subsidiary] VSQ has given me, but it is upsetting not to be able to protect jobs in this difficult economic climate. We have a number of options open to us, and are considering these over the coming months."

It was reported in June 2009 that Bartley was considering ending her contract with Club 21, but industry insiders assumed a new backer would be found before the relationship was dissolved.

The statement added that due to the unexpected closure last month of the brand's key ready-to-wear producer Carla Carini, spring 2010 orders could not be fulfilled. Luella's turnover is currently in the region of 9 million pounds under Club 21, which also distributes Emporio Armani and Giorgio Armani.

It is a shock to those who have followed the progress of Bartley, Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 2008. On Monday night, it was still business as usual: she hosted a party at the London store Liberty, where she has designed the Christmas grotto and window display.

"This is a very disappointing situation for everyone involved," she said yesterday. "I have had an incredible team around me... and it is upsetting not to be able to protect jobs in this difficult economic climate."

Known for its idiosyncratic and humorous mix of punk details and party dresses, Luella is the label of choice for the streetwise British girl-about-town and is regularly worn by London gossip-page royalty Alexa Chung, Lily Allen and the Geldof sisters. The designer once described her look as "the kind of clothes you can get drunk and fall over in".