New Balance is Very Uncool with Teenagers, Survey Says

The Finish Line, Inc., the sports shoe store, was polled by Tickermine soon after the retailer promised to expand its headquarters and add 180 more staff. We asked which shoe brand teenagers buy the most? Which brand is requested that you don’t currently carry? Is store traffic up or down compared with before? Are there more or less sales and how much do most customers spend on shoes? Nike hails as the most popular teenage brand according to 71% of those interviewed. Converse and then Adidas were each cited by 11% while New Balance was mentioned by 6%. Forty three percent said no specific non-stocked brand was requested but 6% mentioned Fubu, another 6% cited Asics and 11% mentioned Vans. Most people, 43%, said business was up. 34% said it was the same and 23% said it was down. Even so, 72% said their stores offered more sales than before. 14% offered less and another 14% said sales were the same. And 66% of customers spend less than $100. 20% see customers spend $145-$200 and 17% spend $100-$125.

Wait-times Increase This Month at Cheesecake Factory

Tickermine interviewed employees of twenty-six Cheesecake Factory restaurants and found that the average wait time for a party of two is between 15-25 minutes at 38% of the restaurants polled. Customers wait 30 minutes at 35% of the restaurants and will wait less than 10 minutes at 23% of the restaurants surveyed. Eleven (42%) restaurants reported that the average check size for a party of two is between $40 and $50. Five (19%) restaurants reported the average check size over $50. Employees at twenty (76%) restaurants reported that customers order cheesecake at least 50% of the time. When asked whether the restaurant was busier this month compared to last, fourteen (54%) said yes.

Competitors Steer Clear of Apple's iPhone

Sprint, Verizon, & T-Mobile retail stores interviewed by Tickermine do not carry Apple's iPhone and have no plans to carry the device in the future. Of the 32 stores surveyed across the country, 41% said that LG’s Voyager was as good or similar to the iPhone. Other phones stated as comparable to the iPhone included Sumsung’s Instinct (16%), Blast (9%) and LG’s Dare (9%).

67% of Shoe Carnival Stores Beef Up their Discounts

Shoe Carnival was profiled by Tickermine researchers this week on which were the top three selling brands, which brand teenagers were gravitating to, which brand was being requested that the retailer currently didn’t stock , and how was store traffic this past few weeks? We sampled a decent cross-section of 30 stores in varying states. The top three items cited were Nike, Sketchers and any brand making sandals. Teenagers like Nike the best, say 47% of respondents.