The Winners and Losers This Season

Originally published December 3, 2025. This version was rebuilt from company releases, government data and traffic research for the FIN archive, and the facts are as of that date.

The first week after Thanksgiving gave the industry a quick report card. A department store did better than it expected, shoppers showed up for deals but spent carefully, and one of the older names in casegoods trimmed its brand list.

The short version

• Macy's posted its best comparable sales growth in more than three years and raised its outlook.
• Black Friday traffic research pointed to value hunting and smaller baskets.
• September furniture store sales were a little above the year before in the first estimate.
• Hooker agreed to sell Pulaski and Samuel Lawrence Furniture to Magnussen Home.

Macy's beats its own guidance

Macy's reported third-quarter comparable sales up 2.5% on an owned basis, its strongest growth in 13 quarters, and raised its sales and earnings guidance for the year. The company still assumed a more selective shopper in the fourth quarter.

The lesson for furniture stores isn't the department store itself. It is that a tired format can still grow when it invests in the stores it decides to keep.

Black Friday shoppers came for value

Placer.ai's read on Black Friday found shoppers focused on final price and everyday value, with longer store visits spent assembling baskets of smaller items rather than one big purchase. The Midwest showed an especially strong response to value promotions.

Its mall index told a similar story. Early November promotions pulled some traffic forward, and Saturday and Sunday of the holiday weekend were softer than Friday.

For a furniture store that relies on a big holiday weekend, that pattern matters. The shopper was out, but planning, and a sofa is the kind of single big purchase people were putting off.

September furniture sales, first look

The Census Bureau's advance report for September, released late because of the shutdown, showed furniture and home furnishings stores up 1.2% from a year earlier and up 0.6% from August.

Update. The next month's report revised September to a 3.0% decline from the year before, so the small gain in this first estimate did not hold.

Hooker sells two casegoods brands

Hooker Furnishings agreed on December 1 to sell its Pulaski Furniture and Samuel Lawrence Furniture casegoods brands to Magnussen Home. The deal closed December 12. Magnussen picked up two established names, and Hooker kept its hospitality business under the Samuel Lawrence name.

Where this left the industry in early December

The winners that season gave shoppers a clear reason to come in and a price that felt right when they got there. The rest were cutting brands, stores or costs to get back to that point.

Related on FIN

• Every Door in Town
• Furniture Shoppers Are Holding Back

Sources

• Macy's, Inc., Third quarter 2025 results, corrected release, Dec. 3, 2025
• Placer.ai, Four Black Friday Signals for the 2025 Holiday Season
• Placer.ai, November 2025 Mall Index
• U.S. Census Bureau, Advance Monthly Retail Trade Report for September 2025, released Nov. 25, 2025
• U.S. Census Bureau, Advance Monthly Retail Trade Report for October 2025, released Dec. 16, 2025
• Hooker Furnishings, Form 8-K on completion of the Pulaski and Samuel Lawrence sale