Washington Mutual has opened one of its new Occasio branches inside the Haggen store at 26603 72nd Ave. NW in Stanwood. It is one of 48 involved in a nationwide pilot program that retrofits concepts from the new retail-oriented theme into existing branches. It follows the bank’s south Everett branch inside the Fred Meyer store at 8530 Everegreen Way, which opened with the new features last March. So far, the bank has opened more than 100 of the new branches, which eliminate traditional counters and cash drawers while adding features such as a concierge to guide customers to someone who can help them.
Merrill Lynch &Co., the nation’s largest brokerage, eliminated 9,000 jobs in the United States and overseas during the past year as part of a plan to reduce costs by $1.4 billion amid a slump on Wall Street. The company said half the job cuts are from divestitures and discontinued business, and half are from voluntary separations and layoffs. In a conference call with investors, top Merrill Lynch officials said the cuts will not affect the company’s ability to squeeze out profits in a tough market environment or limit it from taking advantage of an expected economic turnaround later this year. The job reductions were “extremely targeted and disciplined to avoid cutting into muscle of organization,” said David Komansky, Merrill Lynch chairman and chief executive.
Best Buy Inc. raised its fourth-quarter profit estimate Wednesday, as it reported better than expected holiday results, fueled by strong sales of digital and video gaming products. The nation’s largest consumer electronics chain said it now expects fourth-quarter earnings to be in the range of $1.35 to $1.40 a share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call expected $1.27 a share. Best Buy is expected to report its results April 2. Best Buy said total sales in December were $3.9 billion, up 43 percent from a year ago.
More than 5 million PlayStation2 video game machines were sold worldwide during the holiday season, the game unit of Sony Corp. said Wednesday. Sales were brisk because of a price cut for the machine in Japan in November to $220 from $260, the addition of new game titles and strong demand in the United States, Sony Computer Entertainment said. In Japan, Sony sold about 1.1 million PlayStation2 machines from Nov. 26 to Jan. 6, or nearly three times for the same period last year. In North America, sales reached about 2.5 million units from Thanksgiving to the end of the year, while sales in Europe totaled about 1.68 million in December, it said.
From Herald news services
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