A12 The silence will be deafening:


There is nomajor economic news scheduled for the week. After a breathtakingly busy year, econo- my-watchers have earned a break.


Tuesday The Standard & Poor’s Case-


Schiller home-price index is scheduled to be released. Ana- lysts expect it to show an 0.7 percent decline in October home prices in 20 major metropolitan areas, following an 0.8 percent decline in September. The ex- pected decline reflects the con- tinued slow bleed of the housing market following the end of a homebuyer tax credit last spring. By contrast, the Federal Hous-


ing Finance Agency’s home price index,which is calculated using a similar methodology, showed an unexpected rise in prices inOcto- ber. The Case-Shiller number should give some sense ofwheth- er that was an aberration or if there’s somemomentumin home prices.


Neil’s Must Reads


Think that people owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth is part of the reason they can’t move to states where there are jobs? It may not be much of a factor after all, argues Minneapolis Fed economist Sam Schulhofer-Wohl in a new paper. Find links at washingtonpost.com/mustreads


Also Tuesday, the Conference


Board is slated to release its consumer confidence survey for December, which is expected to show that Americans became more confident about the econo- my.The index is forecast to rise to 56.3 from November’s 54.1. That would be consistent with reports of a solid holiday sales season.


Thursday APPOINTMENTS


Companies Towne Park of Annapolis


named Dan Cowens vice presi- dent of operations. USEC of Bethesda named M.


Richard Smith to its board of directors. Gannett of McLean named


John Zidich president of its U.S. community publishing group for theWest. Guident of Herndon named


Tim Clements vice president, Audrey Sites vice president of human capital, Len Rosenblum and Ryan Barker senior director of business intelligence. Corbin of Alexandria named


Dustin Kanady vice president/ chief marketing officer, Sean McAuliffe vice president/sys- tems division manager and Ann Sommers assistant vice presi- dent/consulting division manag- er.


Johnson & Strachan of Fairfax


named Charlie Venus, former managing underwriting director at Travelers, principal and part- ner. New Energy Technologies of


Bethesda named AndrewT. Fara- go chief operating officer.


Associations/ nonprofit


The Advanced Medical Tech-


nology Association of the Dis- trict named Gary Karr executive vice president for public affairs. The Levine School of Music of


the District named Maria Ma- thieson, former acting dean, di-


rector ofmusic education. D.C. Chamber of Commerce


chose Gina F. Adams to chair its board of directors. The Legal Aid Society of the


District named Eric Angel execu- tive director. The Public Welfare Founda-


tion of the District named Mary E. McClymont, former executive director of Global Rights, presi- dent. Seabury Resources for Aging


of the District named Michele Levy director of development and Regine Clermont director of Christian Communities. The American Association of


Bank Directors of the District named Andrew L. Sandler to its board of advisers. Downtown DC Business Im-


provement District named Karyn LeBlanc communications director. The National Institute on Re-


tirement Security named Diane Oakley, former senior policy ad- viser on retirement and tax poli- cy issues on Capitol Hill, direc- tor.


Real estate Foulger-Pratt Management of


Rockville named Tim Dick vice president of engineering.


Financial PNC Bank of the District


named Sena K. Ayenu, former lender at Citibank, vice presi- dent; John D’Ermes, former commercial relationship manag-


TRANSACTIONS


Trading as reported by companies’ directors, presidents, chief financial officers, general counsel, chief executive officers, chairmen and other officers, or by beneficial owners of more than 10 percent of a company’s stock.


Company


Avalonbay Communities Chindex International Ciena


Cogent Communications Group Dominion Resources FTI Consulting Gannett


General Dynamics Insider


Thomas J. Sargeant Holli Harris


Stephen B. Alexander Gary B. Smith Jeffrey Karnes


Robert H. Spilman Jr. Denis J. Callaghan Todd A. Mayman


Nicholas D. Chabraja David K. Heebner George A. Joulwan John M. Keane


Hanger Orthopedic Group Marriott International Edward A. Ryan Maximus Portfolio Recovery Associates


Sandy Spring Bancorp Savvis


Richard A. Montoni David N. Walker


Steven D. Fredrickson


Philip J. Mantua John D. Clark


D. Scott Mackesy


Thomas E. McInerney Paul B. Queally


Jonathan M. Rather Sanjay Swani


UDR United Therapeutics


Thomas W. Toomey John M. Ferrari Roger A. Jeffs Paul A. Mahon


Martine A. Rothblatt


Washington Real Estate Investment Trust


WGL Holdings


Laura M. Franklin Debra L. Lee


General counsel CEO CFO CEO


CFO


Beneficial Owner Beneficial Owner Director/Owner Beneficial Owner Beneficial Owner Beneficial Owner CEO CFO


President


General counsel CEO


Officer Director


Dec. 16


Dec. 14 to Dec. 16 Dec. 16


Dec. 15 to Dec. 17


Dec. 14 Dec. 14 Dec. 15 Dec. 15


Dec. 14, Dec. 15 Dec. 14 Dec. 14 Dec. 13 Dec. 16


Dec. 16, Dec. 17 Dec. 16 Dec. 16


Dec. 16 Dec. 15


Sold Sold Sold Sold


Sold Sold Sold Sold Sold Sold Sold Sold Sold Sold Sold Sold


Sold Bought


10,000 9,802 4,950


12,000 1,800


13,596 10,000 4,625


53,651 15,000 12,145


100,000 7,081


18,000 4,000 8,000


14,943 125


41.09


65.71 to 66.94 66.15 to 66.64 73.02 to 75.29


18


25.85 to 26.04 25.12 25.21


25.19 to 25.42 26.04


25.54 to 26.01 23


63.52


63.74 to 64.25 63.55 63.83


29.40 36.05


46,915


118,126 12,670


136,862 23,652


10,296,100 10,289,900 10,908,100 10,323,700 10,382,000 10,287,300 1,693,860 62,870 22,062 33,600


567,132


74,332 4,876


Thomson Financial


Ares Corporate Opportuni- ties Fund


Title CFO Director


Chief technology officer CEO


Officer Director Director


General counsel Director Officer Director Director


Beneficial Owner Date


Dec. 10 to Dec. 13 Dec. 13 to Dec. 16 Dec. 15 Dec. 15 Dec. 20 Dec. 13 Dec. 15 Dec. 13 Dec. 14 Dec. 15 Dec. 14 Dec. 16


Dec. 15 Action


Sold Sold Sold Sold Sold


Bought Sold Sold Sold Sold Sold Sold


Sold Shares Price Now holds


26,563 112.03 to 113.37 22,500 5,000 6,250 938 470


5,625 23,250


350,000 19,260 3,961 4,300


2,000,000


17.60 to 18 18.97 19.35 12.62 41.83 35.76 15.62 70


69.83 69.94 70.08


19.75


131,170 47,987


252,021 499,194 94,278 4,520


10,523 4,173


1,382,660 113,673 15,272 5,754


3,046,980


er at Wachovia/Wells Fargo Bank, senior vice president; Emi- ly D. Hallenbeck, former com- mercial relationship manager at Wachovia/Wells Fargo Bank, vice president; Ashish Khosla, for- mer commercial principal rela- tionship manager at Wachovia/ Wells Fargo Bank, senior vice president; TonyMcBarnette, for- mer relationship manager, vice president; David A. Smith, for- mer lender at Wachovia/Wells Fargo Bank, vice president; Chu Yi, formerly with Wachovia/ Wells Fargo Bank, vice president. EagleBank of Bethesda named


Demond D. Davis, former rela- tionship manager in the com- mercial banking groupwith PNC Financial Services, vice presi- dent and commercial loan offi- cer.


Legal SNR Denton of the District


named Casey Sixkiller senior adviser in the Indian law and tribal representation practice. Baker, Donselson, Bearman,


Caldwell & Berkowitz of the District namedHallieN.Offen of counsel in its corporate/mergers and acquisitions group.


Send information about promotions, appointments and personnel moves in the Washington area to Appointments, Business News, The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071-5302, or to appointments@washpost.com.


EZ SU


KLMNO THISWEEK: DEC. 27-JAN. 2 The Labor Department releas-


es its weekly reading on new jobless claims, which has been a bright spot in the economy in recentweeks. Analysts expect for 415,000 people to have filed new claims for unemployment insur- ance benefits last week, which would be a decline from420,000 the previous week. Also Thursday, the National


Association of Realtors releases its pending home-sales data for November, which will give a sense of what existing-home sales will look like in December and January. Analysts expect pending home sales to have risen 2 percent inNovember, following a 10 percent rise in October.


Friday In the final trading day of the


year,market returns for 2010will go on the books. As of this past Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 11 percent for the year, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 was up 12.7 percent. — Neil Irwin


MARY ALTAFFER/ASSOCIATED PRESS Determined shoppers make their way through the snowflakes atNewYork’sUnion Square on Sunday.


Shoppers storm stores for post-Christmas deals


Holiday season appears to have been retailers’ best since 2007


BYMAE ANDERSON ATLANTA — While an East


Coast snowstorm put a damper on after-Christmas buying Sun- day, shoppers across the rest of the country scoured clearance racks and spent gift cards in the afterglow ofwhat appears to have been the best holiday season for retailers since 2007. Because the storm came after


Christmas, the loss was expected to hurt retailers less than the snowstorm that buried much of the same area last year on the Saturday before Christmas. That onecost retailersabout$2billion. “People will just wait a day to


do exchanges and use their gift cards. It’s no big deal,” said Greg Maloney, chief executive of the retail practice of Jones Lang La- Salle, which manages malls across the country. He said he expects this month’s


revenue to grow a healthy 7 to 10 percent from last year’s figures. Strong spending this week would build on the highest-spending holiday season since 2007, a re- cord year. Predictions call for a retail rev-


enue increase of 3 to 4 percent for the whole season, the best per- centage increase since 2006. The snow will send some shop-


pers online, where sales have been stellar. IBM Coremetrics


said online spending rose more than 16 percent this past week, and the average order rose 13 percent to $192.52. From Nov. 1 through Dec. 19, total online spending rose 12 percent to $28.36 billion, according to re- search firm ComScore. The day after Christmas was


the second-highest revenue day for retailers last year with


“If December is prosperous, that will lead them to feel confident in 2011.”


—Marshal Cohen, market research analyst, speaking of retailers.


result was some disappointed shoppers. Lorraine McGrath, 54, wanted


to pick up pajamas for her hus- band at J.C. Penney in New York on Sunday morning. She was one of the first people in the store but couldn’t find big-and-tall paja- mas to fit her husband. At Best Buy at the Atlantic


Center mall in Brooklyn, Marie Brown said she was disappointed to find that the laptop computers advertised at $200 were long gone. “We should have come earlier,


because what we wanted was totally sold out,” she said. She bought another laptop at $60 off and said, “We still saved money.” Some shoppers were pleasant-


$7.9 billion spent, according to ShopperTrak. The nation’s largest mall, the


Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., expected 100,000 shop- pers Sunday, a bustling crowd on a day of respite from heavy snow that has plagued the area. “We happen to have good


weather, unlike what we’ve been having,” spokesman Dan Jasper said. He said he expects holiday revenue for stores at the mall will rise 8 percent over last year’s revenue. Retailers ordered inventory sparingly this year and reported being out of some items. The


ly surprised. Cousins Joelle Lee, 33, and Rebecca Jardine, 18, hit Pembroke Lakes Mall in Pem- broke Pines, Fla., early, looking for half-price Christmas orna- ments andNewYear’s Eve outfits. Jardine splurged on a watch at Guess marked down 40 percent. “Some of the sales are really


great,” Lee said. “But some of the stores, it feels like it’s off. I figured they would have been more ag- gressive.” Marshal Cohen, chief industry


analyst at market research firm NPD Group, said strong after- Christmas sales would be icingon the holiday cake for retailers. “They came into December


having made money,” he said. “If December is prosperous, that will lead them to feel confident in 2011, and that’s really what this last week is all about.” —Associated Press


Amazon aims to let users avoid awful gifts, expensive e-returns


gifts from A1


could spread throughout the e-re- tailing industry, which this holi- day season racked up $28 billion in gift purchases. “This idea totally misses the


spirit of gift giving,” Post said. “Thepoint of gift giving is to allow someone else to go through that actionofbuying something forus. Otherwise, giving a gift just be- comes another one of the world’s transactions.” The proposal has also brought


into focus a very costly part of the e-retailing business model: Up to 30 percent of purchases are re- turned, and the cost of getting rejected gifts back across the country and onto shelves has on- line retailers scrambling for ways to reduce these expenses. “It’s in the millions of dollars,


BANKRUPTCIES These firms recently filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy


Court’s local court clerk’s offices. Under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code, a


company is protected from claims by creditors while it attempts to reorganize its finances under a plan approved by the court. In a Chapter 7 liquidation, a court trustee sells


assets to pay creditors’ claims. The company then ceases operations.


EASTERNVIRGINIA DISTRICT ALEXANDRIADIVISION


H&L Hospitality LLC 1426 L Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20005 Type of filing: Chapter 11 reorganization Case number: 10-20527-SSM Date filed: Dec. 17 Attorney: Farhad Mostafavi Rejali, 703-918-4934


Assets: zero to $50,000 Liabilities: $100,001 to $500,000 Largest unsecured creditor: Not disclosed EEE Auto Sales Inc. 8200 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, Va. 22182 Type of filing: Chapter 11 reorganization Case number: 10-20539-RGM Date filed: Dec. 17 Attorney: Dylan G. Trache, 703-905-2829 Assets: $1,000,001 to $10 million Liabilities: $1,000,001 to $10 million Largest unsecured creditor: AmEx, $52,000 EEE of Fairfax LLC 10530 Fairfax Blvd., Fairfax, Va. 22030 Type of filing: Chapter 11 reorganization Case number: 10-20540-RGM Date filed: Dec. 17 Attorney: Dylan G. Trache, 703-905-2829 Assets: $1,000,001 to $10 million Liabilities: $1,000,001 to $10 million Largest unsecured creditor: SunTrust Bank, $81,305 EEE Automotive Inc.


15610 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Woodbridge, Va. 22191 Type of filing: Chapter 11 reorganization Case number: 10-20541-RGM Date filed: Dec. 17 Attorney: Dylan G. Trache, 703-905-2829 Assets: $1,000,001 to $10 million Liabilities: $1,000,001 to $10 million Largest unsecured creditor: Golam H. Raminpour, $8,000 EEE of Sterling Inc. 47000 Harry Byrd Hwy., Sterling, Va. 20164 Type of filing: Chapter 11 reorganization Case number: 10-20542-RGM Date filed: Dec. 17 Attorney: Dylan G. Trache, 703-905-2829 Assets: $1,000,001 to $10 million Liabilities: $1,000,001 to $10 million Largest unsecured creditor: 47000 Harry Byrd Highway Inc., $31,500


—Compiled by Vanessa Mizell


anditmight evenbebillions,” said Carl Howe, a Yankee Group con- sumer technology analyst. “If you can get the right gift to a person the first time, this could be a huge cost-saving invention. From a re- tailer’s perspective, this is like gold.” Amazon’s timeline for intro-


ducing the idea to consumers is unclear, as is its plan for market- ing the conceptwithout offending gift giverswho take great pride in their selection of unfortunate Christmas sweaters for their fa- vorite nieces and nephews. Offi- cials from the Seattle retailer did not return numerous e-mail and phone requests for comment. But Amazon appears to be quite seri- ous: Its patent was awarded not just toAmazon, but to its founder, JeffBezos. Amazon’s patent is 12 pages


Home delivery is convenient. 1-800-753-POST SF


long, with numerous diagrams, including a “Gift Conversion Rules Wizard” that shows how a usercouldselect rules suchas, “No clotheswithwool.” The document


makes for curious reading, reduc- ing the art of gift giving to the dry language of patentry. “It sometimes occurs that gifts


purchased online do notmeet the needs or tastes of the gift recipi- ent,” the patent says. “In some cases, concern that the gift recipi- ent may not like a particular gift may cause the person sending the gift to be more cautious in gift selection. The person sending the gift may be less likely to take a chanceonagift that isunexpected but that the recipientmight truly enjoy,opting insteadfor a gift that is somewhatmorepredictablebut less likelytobeconvertedtosome- thing else.” In even drier language — “an


exemplary embodiment relates to a computer-implemented data processing system comprising a user interface and gift conversion logic”—Amazonexplains compli- cated algorithms that help users create rules about what to do in certain gift situations, such as “Convert any gift from Aunt Mil- dred to a gift certificate, but only after checkingwithme.” Most cleverly — or deviously,


depending on your attitude to- ward this sort ofmanipulation — the gift giver will be none the wiser: “The usermay also be pro- videdwith the option of sending a thank you note for the original gift,” according to the patent, “even though the original gift is converted.” (Alternatively, a recip- ient could choose to let the giver know he has exchanged the item for something else.) Amazon’s idea represents the


most drastic way of reducing re- turn shipping costs in e-retailing. Companies have taken steps on the front end, includingwish lists and e-mailed gift cards. (“I don’t think gift cards are the end of the world,butpeople shouldtryhard- er first,” Post said.)


On the back end, retailers are


trying to reduce shipping costs by using the less expensiveU.S. Post- al Service for at least part of the return journey. The Postal Service haspartneredwithits competitor, Federal Express, on a program called SmartPost, which consoli- dates individual packages into larger shipments. “Anytime you have to touch a


product, there’s a cost associated withthat, and those costs add up,” said Kevin Brown, marketing di- rector forNewgistics,aTexascom- pany that specializes in simplify- ing returns for e-retailers. But it’s not just shipping costs


that e-retailers struggle with on returns.There are labor costs, too. Brown said each return typically results inabout twophone calls to customer service lines. Also, re- turns require processing at distri- butioncenters,whichmeansextra staffing during the holiday sea- son. And many opened products can’t be returned to manufactur- ers and must be sold at a loss as refurbished items. “This is absolutely a huge busi-


ness problem,” said Howe, the Yankee analyst. Which iswhy, he said, shipping


the right gift the first time seems like such a high priority. But al- though Amazon’s idea might be exciting to analysts from a cost- savings perspective, even they ad- mit therearepotentialdrawbacks. “This would require a huge


shift inconsumer behavior,which is always hard to achieve,” Howe said. “And there’s really some risk of backlash here.” Post, upholding her great-


great-grandmother’s legacy, said: “Gift giving is not just about the loot. It’s about the fact that some- one thought toget yousomething, and took the time to do it. That’s no small thing in thisworld.” rosenwaldm@washpost.com


MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2010


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