New survey shows holiday spending will increase

Optimism about the economy is kindling holiday cheer as shoppers plan to spend more this year and tech-savvy shoppers have even higher spending expectations, according to Deloitte's 29^th annual holiday survey.

Among the findings:

Holiday spending to increase — consumers who shop across store, mobile and online channels are expected to spend more than single-channel shoppers

• Total holiday spending is predicted to increase by 13 percent to $1,299 per household, and includes gifts, socializing away from home, entertaining at home, non-gift clothing for family or self, home/holiday furnishings, and any other holiday-related spending not in the other categories.
• Spending on just gifts is expected to rise by 9 percent to $458 this year, from $421 last year.
• Consumers who shop across store, mobile and online channels are expected to spend 66 percent more on gifts than those shopping stores only, $592 versus $357.
• The number of gifts consumers expect to purchase increased to 13.4, up from 12.9 in 2013, but nearly 10 gifts less than the high of 23.1 in 2007.

Consumers prefer shopping the Internet and discount/value stores this holiday season

• The Internet and discount/value stores once again rank as the top shopping venues this year, with the Internet No. 1 for the second straight year.  Nearly half (45 percent) plan to shop online, followed closely by 44 percent at discount/value stores. 
• In-store purchases are expected to account for 52 percent of the holiday budget.
• Consumers expect to make an average of five (4.6) trips to traditional "brick-and-mortar" stores during the holiday season.
• Clothing remains the No. 1 item consumers plan to purchase as a gift, cited by 45 percent of respondents; gift cards (43 percent) continue to hold the No. 2 position, but are down from a high of 69 percent in 2007.  
• The top two gifts respondents would like to receive are gift cards (37 percent) followed by cash (35 percent).
• More than two-thirds (68 percent) plan to "shop local" this year, with the No. 1 reason, "To support the local economy"; and the No. 2 reason, "To find one-of-a-kind gifts."  In the survey, "local retail stores" are defined as small businesses, independent retailers or boutique shops which are not part of national chains.

Shoppers appear undeterred by reported data breaches

• More than half (55 percent) of respondents indicate they are concerned about the protection of their personal data when shopping online and 42 percent have the same concerns in-store. 
• Though there is concern for personal data when shopping both online and in-store, 56 percent indicated they will continue to shop this holiday season at retailers that have experienced a data breach.
• Nearly four in 10 (36 percent) indicated "I am more likely to shop at a retailer who provides me education surrounding the security of my personal data."

December shaping up to be another busy month for retailers; Nearly 70 percent of shoppers "webrooming"

• Forty-three percent of respondents will do a majority of their holiday shopping in December or later, an increase of 6 percentage points from 2013.
• Almost seven in 10 (68 percent) indicated they will go online to look at an item, then go to a store to see it and buy it in the store ("webrooming").
• Nearly half (49 percent) indicated they will go to a store to look at an item, then search online for the best price and then purchase online ("showrooming").
• Roughly three-quarters (74 percent) of shoppers say they will be influenced by coupons/promotions.
• Consumers plan to take advantage of a number of retailer offerings this year, including free shipping (68 percent), free returns (52 percent), price matching (45 percent), extended holiday hours (35 percent), order online for pick up in-store (34 percent) and free layaway (16 percent).
• Nearly half (47 percent) of shoppers say they do not rely on Black Friday as much as they used to for holiday shopping. 

Alison Paul, vice chairman and retail sector leader for Deloitte LLP, said, "With the short, 27-day shopping stretch between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, retailers need to be sharp with their promotional timing, inventory management and distribution capabilities. Retailers that can fulfill orders from both online distribution centers and store inventories, for example, may be more nimble and poised to respond quickly to pockets of high demand for certain gifts — and ensure timely holiday deliveries."

Paul added, "Despite concerns about the security of personal information, shoppers also appear resilient to reported data breaches and desire to still shop with affected retailers. Retailers should benefit from this optimism and expression of loyalty, but need to stay vigilant as a spike in transactional activity around the holiday season comes with increased vulnerability."

For more information about Deloitte's Annual Holiday Survey, please read the full survey report or follow us@DeloitteCB. An infographic and complete survey results are also available for download.

'Frozen' freezes out Halloween costume competition

This year, the costume mania award goes to . . . Hollywood!

The frenzy over Walt Disney Pictures' 2013 film Frozen has continued well into 2014. SLI Systems, a worldwide e-commerce provider for mid- to large-size Internet retailers and B2B sites worldwide, reported that consumers conducted more than one million site searches this Halloween season for Frozen-related queen, princess and snowman characters, making it the most-searched category in the study.

Other popular films, including Paramount Pictures' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), Despicable Me's "Minions," Maleficent, and Book of Life also made 2014's Top 15 List.

SLI studied site search activity across 17 costume retailer websites based in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, and analyzed a total of more than 80 million consumer searches that took place between Sept. 1 and Oct. 26, 2013 and between Sept. 1 and Oct. 26, 2014. Combined, the e-commerce sites studied have monthly revenue of approximately $20 million.

"Our data team compared the most popular site search terms across costume retailer e-commerce sites using our Learning Search service during the 2013 and 2014 Halloween seasons," said Shaun Ryan, CEO of SLI Systems. "Disney's Frozen-themed costume searches simply 'freeze out' all competition, including Paramount's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, in Halloween 2014. In fact, 'Frozen' received 122 percent more search activity than 'TMNT' this year, and nearly 160 percent more search activity than any movie in 2013 – the most popular film-related costume search being 'Batman' in 2013."

The Top 15 Most-Searched Costume Themes of 2014, in order:
(seven are movie themes)

1.    Frozen – 1,192,000 (includes searches Elsa, Olaf & other characters)
2.    Zombie – 863,000 
3.    Ninja – 863,000 
4.    Pirate – 796,000 
5.    Clown – 659,000
6.    Witch – 588,000
7.    Vampire – 565,000 
8.    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (TMNT) – 536,000
9.    Book of Life – 308,000 (includes searches for "day of the dead")
10.  Flapper – 277,000
11.  Batman – 251,000
12.  Despicable Me – 233,000 (78% of related searches for minion characters)
13.  Maleficent – 227,000
14.  Monster High – 206,000
15.  Star Wars – 148,000

Additional findings from the Halloween study include:

• Frozen-related costume searches in 2014 received 38 percent more search activity than the number two theme of zombie and nearly 160 percent more search activity than any film in 2013.
• Costumes with film- and branded-toy relevance made the Top Ten 2013 list (but none made Top Five): Batman (461,000), Despicable Me/minion (441,000) and Monster High (405,000).
• The top three most popular searches in 2013 were: pirate (873,000), zombie (828,000) and ninja (706,000).

Matthews sells majority share of GEM Terrace to Cullinan Properties

GEM Terrace, the East Peoria office building that sits atop a bluff off Main Street, has gone from one of that city’s top developers to another in a transaction that closed Tuesday night.

Cullinan Properties, lead developer of the Levee District that has transformed downtown East Peoria, has acquired 80 percent of GEM Terrace from EM Properties and its owner, Gary Matthews, who has developed many retail areas of East Peoria, including where WalMart and Embassy Suites now stand along the riverfront. He also is the owner of the Marriott Pere Marquette in downtown Peoria, which he gutted and renovated.

The purchase price of GEM Terrace was not disclosed. Cullinan Properties expects to relocate its corporate offices from Peoria to the second and fifth floors of GEM Terrace around the end of the first quarter of 2015, the company said. It is likely the name of the building will change.

All told Cullinan will own 18,320 square feet of the 26,000 square foot building. Heritage Bank owns the first floor. Other tenants, Validus Technologies, Legacy Investment Services and Consociate Dansig Group, lease space in the building Matthews built in 2007 that has a steel frame with glass curtain exterior walls.  

“We look forward to moving our corporate headquarters to such an upscale building with spectacular views of the Illinois River, downtown Peoria and East Peoria. With the economic growth that continues East and West of the river, this move puts our headquarters in the middle of the ongoing development that has already happened and what’s to come in the region,” said Diane Cullinan Oberhelman, chairman and founding partner of Cullinan Properties. 

As part of a 2010 redevelopment agreement between the City of East Peoria and Cullinan Properties, the company was required to locate its corporate offices within or near the Levee District. The company had planned to build a new structure within the Levee District, but things had to change because of how quickly that area developed, Oberhelman said.

“This came up as a possibility and with Gary semi-retiring and reducing the size of his company, we worked out a deal that moved quickly the last few days. We’re excited. It keeps us solidly in the area and really, there is so little separation between the two cities any more this will be a good place for us to locate our offices,” she said.

Oberhelman said she doubts her office will need more than two floors, noting she also has offices in Chicago and St. Louis. Her company has developed and owns mixed-use projects across the country but the majority of its holdings are in the Peoria area and include many retail, office and medical projects it also developed. Cullinan Properties also developed the Shoppes at Grand Prairie and One Technology Plaza in downtown Peoria.

Matthews announced earlier his plans to become semi-retired. “This purchase will permit me to reduce my office space needs consistent with my desire to spend more time with my wife and family,” said Matthws, 73.

EM Properties has relocated to office space at the Pere Marquette, he said.

Matthews said he has sold many of his holdings, mostly his retail properties, in the past several months and still plans to sell vacant properties he owns in East Peoria and the area. He said he plans to keep the hotels he owns in the area.

“I’m not retiring completely, but I am ready to spend more time with my family and less time hassling over projects,” he said.  

Movie review: 'Fury' worth the price of admission

(7 out of 10 stars)

(134 Minutes, Rated R for graphic war scenes and violence, sexual situations, and language.)

If you are pining for a rip-roaring, good old fashioned World War II movie, take yourself to see Brad Pitt’s newest movie — and the current number one box office film — “Fury.”

I must admit this genre is perhaps of my favorite. While this particular film lands on the scale somewhere between “Saving Private Ryan” and any number of John Wayne films, “Fury” is certainly worth your movie dollar.

Set in the waning days of World War II somewhere in the countryside of Germany, the story opens with a five-man Sherman tank crew needing to replace one of their recently fallen brethren. The crew is led by wizened and battle-tested Wardaddy (that’s really his nickname) played by the suddenly-showing-his-age Brad Pitt. In the opening moments of the movie, Pitt is given the freshest-faced and newest recruit to the European theater, Norman, played brilliantly by the exceedingly talented Logan Lerman in what could be, however, one of the most cornball setups in recent memory. 

Norman, of course, barely looks 16, and was, of course, trained by the Army as a typist, and, of course, has never shot at or killed another soldier. My first thought was, “who the heck did he make mad to draw this assignment?” but once you get past eye-rolling cliches and predictable “that’s the U.S. Army” lines, the movie settles in quite nicely.

At first, I was not quite certain as to what theme writer and director, David Ayer (“Training Day” and “Fast and Furious”) was seeking in his film — nor do I think did he. Most war films tend to devolve into a horrors-of-war saga that can become rather predictable while audience members quickly become bored and play the who-gets-killed-next game.

While this film is exceedingly graphic in many places, it is not gratuitous, and did not attempt to beat the audience over the head with the violence angle. Instead it became a study of human behavior in war and how men in close proximity and who depend upon other men for their survival act and live with each other.

There are tense moments — a few almost Tarantino-esque — in which we wonder about the character and quality of each man inside this machine. Gratefully, the filmmakers give us a nice arc of storyline for us to make up our own minds, and moreover decide how we might act if put in a similar situation.

The acting in this film is top-notch and Brad Pitt is as good as ever, although I’m not sure a man his age would be inside a Sherman tank in April 1945. Logan Lerman (“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and “Percy Jackson”), as I stated, was exceptional in his role of the fresh-faced draftee. I fully believed his initial terror and his transformation into a soldier by movie’s end.  Lerman is blessed with an expressive face and has mastered the art of letting the audience see his thoughts in his eyes and expressions before he blurts them out.

Rounding out a true ensemble cast is Shia LaBeouf, who may well have resurrected his career, Michael Pena, and Jon Bernthal of “Walking Dead” fame. Each brought a subtle and layered persona to the film, and while having a Spanish-speaking Mexican native in a non-integrated 1945 U.S. Army may well have been a stretch, any narrative or exploration of race relations thankfully never developed.

The cinematography and war scenes are excellent, and the CGI and sound effect experts did a remarkable job in recreating the tension of war. Of course, if you see this film in Peoria, I highly recommend the sound and visual superiority of Carmike Grand Prairie 18+.  I was only disappointed by the fact I could not see this movie in IMAX, but that was incidental.

I know World War II history well and I was worried that Ayers might take liberties in order to accomplish the many elements he needed, but I am thankful to report he did not. By 1945 Hitler’s armies were defeated, but it is important to note they fought their hardest once the Allies crossed into German territory. That was depicted in the film. Moreover, the Wehrmacht by April 1945 was either a division of rag-tag group of old men and boys who surrendered by the tens of thousands, or a division of elite SS soldiers who were still the best fighting force in the world. This, too, was nicely depicted.

One of the highlights of the movie was a tank battle between American Sherman tanks and a German Tiger tank and it got the superior speed and maneuverability of the Sherman tank against the devastating firepower and insanely thick armor of the Tiger. In fact, the movie highlights and uses the actual last working Tiger tank in the world, and it really is quite interesting to watch the scene develop.

Please do not let me mislead you. This film will not go down in the annals of great war movies.  It is full of plot holes and the final scene is a bit difficult to believe, but fortunately the moviemaker has accomplished well what he set out to do. 

And that is more often than not a rarity in Hollywood these days.

I give this film 7 out of 10 stars.