This Week in Retail: Walmart, Target earnings, and Anime NYC

It’s National Thrift Shop Day, and those who celebrate are closing out their online shopping carts and hitting their local secondhand retailer. To prepare shoppers for the event, Goodwill released these tips for getting the most out of the occasion. The nonprofit is using the holiday to make the case for thrift stores in general, appealing to “bargain hunters, fashion enthusiasts, and environmentally conscious individuals.”

Here’s what else is going on in retail this week:

In earnings: It’s retail week for Q2 earnings, with big box, discount, wholesale and home improvement all reporting. Kicking off the lineup of heavy hitters is Home Depot on Tuesday. Then Lowe’s, Target, and TJX Companies on Wednesday, Walmart and Ross Stores on Thursday, and BJ’s Wholesale on Friday. In Q1, the retail sector overall beat expectations on the back of some hefty tax refunds. Now that the extra money is gone, we’ll see if headwinds such as higher gas prices impact consumer spending.

In sales: Best Buy is celebrating its 60th anniversary this week, and it’s running promotions and a sweepstakes to mark the occasion. The company started as an audio equipment store called the Sound of Music in St. Paul, Minnesota, and gradually expanded into other categories and services in the years that followed.

In conferences: Anime NYC is coming to the Javits Center later this week. The three-day event showcases Japanese pop culture, including anime, manga, and gaming. These categories are increasingly popular in the US and represent a massive potential market globally, especially as the market slows in China.

As part of the conference, there will also be an invitation-only event on the state of licensing and intellectual property in the sector. Topics include “the global rise of anime and manga licensing” and “the power of collectibles and kidult culture”—the latter of which might sound familiar to anyone who has been tracking the US toy industry, which is increasingly relying on collectibles and adult customers for sales.