'Tis the season to see holiday ads.

However, this year it seems like the battle for the gift dollars started earlier than usual..

The recent joint proposals from FASB and IASB to eventually overhaul lease accounting rules would most impact retailers, according to an in-depth report from Credit Suisse Securities.

The Swiss investment bank estimates off-balance-sheet lease liability for the S&P 500 companies is at least $549 billion. It figures two industry groups--Food & Staples Retailing and Specialty Retail--account for 25 percent of the total.

Wal-Mart Stores may be moving its apparel-buying operations back to the company's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, only a year and a half after consolidating them to New York, according to a source who wished to remain anonymous.

The decision to move to New York, announced in February 2009, was a painful one for employees. Some 700 to 800 workers at Wal-Mart's corporate headquarters were terminated as a result and the decision to move back may produce more casualties in New York this time.

Is Eddie Lampert gearing up for a major liquidation sale at Sears? It sure seems like it. However, in this case I am referring to the real estate underneath the embattled retailer's stores.

Sears Monday said it closed 27 "underperforming stores" during the fourth quarter of 2009 and 62 altogether in fiscal year 2009. This came on top of 46 closures in fiscal 2008.

Cautious optimism is opening the wallets of consumers again as we celebrate the slow rise out of a two year recession.  November month end results were buoyed by Thanksgiving weekend sales,  with surprise increases online both Black Friday and Cyber Monday, indications that early discounting and great offers by Amazon, Wal-Mart and Sears worked.   Brick-and-mortar stores didn't fare as well, with sharp declines for many teen and luxury retailers, while discounters like Costco, Wal-Mart and TJ Maxx had increases over last year, both in sales and foot traffic.  The message was loud and clear from consumers, "Give me a large discount or lose me as a customer".  Traditional Black Friday sales were everywhere, but the retailers that won were discounting far beyond the standard 20%.  Those that offered discounts in the 20-25%, like Ann Taylor, Banana Republic and Target, paid dearly for not being more aggressive.

The largest increases came from online purchases on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, a trend that will only increase from year to year as technology savvy generations become a larger population of the buying public.  It's no surprise that Monday, November 30^th captured the prize for the most online sales since the term Cyber Monday was introduced several years ago, with Amazon increasing 28% , Walmart 22% and Apple 39% yr. over yr.  Which begs the question, "Will brick and mortar stores be necessary in the future?".  To many of the Kohl's and Borders online shoppers, the answer will be a resounding "YES!" due to the eight online failures that occurred within a 14 hour period on the Kohl's website and 16 failures on the Borders site, certainly costing them revenue.  But consumer behavior is changing and for different reasons.  More of the population is technology savvy, but equally as important, they are wiser to costs and prices of products.