In our final podcast of the year, we detail early numbers from Mastercard that suggest holiday sales may have been even better than estimates. We spend the bulk of the episode counting down our picks for the top five and bottom five retailers in terms of 2018 performance, before covering a potential shift in retail real estate purchasing habits with interest rates rising.

We begin with Costco, whose earnings call revealed continued growth but was not up to analyst expectations by the slimmest of margins. Additionally, we talk a notable purchase in the pet retail space and the state of dairy in retail stores in 2018. Our interview guest is Kevin Kelley of Shook Kelley, who was responsible for leading up the design of the newest Gelson’s Markets store in California.

Shopko leads off our show, as the regional general merchandise retailer announces a slew of closings…we discuss what this means for both the company and rural retail in general. We talk earnings from At Home and Michaels, and do a deep dive into Kroger’s many initiatives to boost margins even after price investments on the food side threaten to erode their bottom line. Finally, we look ahead to a change of leadership at Sprouts and whether or not ESL Investments can save Sears.

We begin the show with two earnings calls—first Dollar Tree, to see if potential rising costs of goods might pose a risk to their future bottom line, then Ross, to see how they are stacking up against their off-price competition. From there, we look to early Cyber Monday data from Edison Trends to see which businesses saw a boost over last year (hint: Sears did not), and fresh data from YouGov that suggests a positive change in perception surrounding Victoria’s Secret.

For this special Black Friday edition of the Retail Focus Podcast, we look into Target and Best Buy earnings, as Layton visited both retailers during the shopping rush and endeavors to discuss implementation of management initiatives. We also talk Kroger’s new warehouse plans with Ocado, and are joined by Cardlytics CMO Dani Cushion and CBRE Senior Economic Advisor Spencer Levy, each of whom discuss their firm’s respective retail holiday data reports.

We stick to legacy retailers to begin this podcast, as Macy’s and JCPenney both release earnings, with one a bit in front of the other in their turnaround execution. Walmart crushes it again, to no one’s surprise—but how long can they keep up their e-commerce growth? We also discuss more layoffs (and struggles) by way of Blue Apron, and a precursor to bankruptcy for David’s Bridal. Our podcast is brought to you by Blinkist; visit www.blinkist.com/retail for a seven-day free trial.

After looking at GNC’s seeming lack of progress in terms of driving sales, we take a glance at Walmart and Target’s recently revealed Black Friday brick-and-mortar plans. From there, we discuss why Party City threw the wrong kind of surprise party after tariffs and attempted inventory controls handcuffed their retail side during the third quarter. Finally, we briefly mention Amazon’s big announcement (which broke towards the end of our recording) and more holiday shopping projections.

We begin this week’s podcast with news from Dallas surrounding details of Sam’s Club’s latest attempt at new store technology with the rollout of a new, smaller, cashier-less pilot location. From there, we look at the how and why of Hibbett’s attempted acquisition of City Gear, Retail Properties of America’s recent earnings call, and reasons why Lumber Liquidators now can’t seem to get out of their own way.

Amazon released earnings to much fanfare this week, and despite market negativity, we find reasons on the retail side to be pleasantly surprised by the call. We break down Agree Realty, who discloses plans to purchase and develop even more retail properties in the next 12 months. Additionally, CVS-Aetna gets a tentative go-ahead, and Tractor Supply Company looks to e-commerce and product selection to blister past expectations. Our podcast is presented this week by Blinkist.

After Sears’ announcement this week, both Kimco and CBL waste no time in discussing their plans for the Sears Holdings locations remaining in their real estate portfolios. From there, we discuss The Tile Shop’s latest earnings call (and why analysts are concerned about tariff impacts on the company) and Sonic’s potential final earnings call as a public company. We wrap up our show with Walmart, who announced a new partnership with Advance Auto Parts and also revealed plans for saving money with—of all things—floor wax. Our podcast is presented this week by AdRoll, the e-commerce growth platform (visit adroll.com/retail for more information).