hi, everybody. welcome to "the wall street journal report." i'm maria bartiromo. will the holiday shopping season be a turkey, or will retailers gobble up profits? we'll take a look at this crucial time for american business and find out the hot holiday trends. catching up with the ceo of heinz. the company that is more than just tomatoes. what he tells about the american consumer, the american economy and the trend for healthier food. and in this season of giving, the new face of american hunger. "the wall street journal report" begins right now. >> this is america's number one financial news program, "the wall street journal report." now maria bartiromo.

>> all that ahead, but first here is scott wapner with a look at the headlines. >> thanks. here is what is ahead on wall street. a crucial weekend for retailers, the unofficial start to the holiday season. it used to begin on black friday, the day businesses went from being in the red to being in the black. but now some stores are opening their doors to bargain hunters on thanksgiving day. many analysts think it will be a strong season, important because consumers make up about 70% of the u.s. economy. even though much of the economy is weak, american businesses set a record for profits last quarter. they earned $1.6 trillion according to the commerce department, the highest number since the government began keeping track of such things. analysts say the growth is partly due to increases in productivity and expansion in emerging markets. the markets had a grim start in a holiday-shortened week, mixed on monday and then tumbling on tuesday on concerns about european debt and concerns

about tension in korea. the markets rebounded later in the week. a divided federal reserve released its minutes from earlier in the month where members debated the pros and cons of quantitative easing. as importantly, the fed released its forecast for next year and lowered its predictions for economic growth, while it raised its forecast for unemployment, predicting the jobless rate would stay at about 8% until 2012. one bright note. the economy grew faster than previously thought in the third quarter of this year. the gross domestic product was revised upward by the commerce department to 2.5%. exports to consumer and government spending were all stronger than initially thought. a disappointing drop in existing home sales. they fell 2.2% in october, likely due to stricter lending standards imposed by banks. now back to maria for the rest of the show. >> thanks, scott. this is the weekend when shoppers start their engines. does that mean happy holidays for the retail industry? my guests are dana telsey, ceo of the telsey advisory group and kimberly palmer, senior money

editor at u.s. news. good to have you on the programs, lady. thank you so much for joining us. >> thanks for having us. >> dana, what do you think? do retail verse the reason to be optimistic this year? >> i think things are going to be better this holiday season than they were last holiday season. we certainly know that the first two weeks of december did well. this black friday that we just had, i think that also is a very good indicator. it's ant important day. retailers were prepared. >> kim, consumers did cut back significantly in '08 and last year as well. you think they'll be spending as well in 2010? >> yes. people are actually ready to have a little fun. that's why we're seeing some of these affordable luxuries really taking off, things like ereaders, and 3-d television. even jewelry. people are ready to spend a little bit. >> so they're looking at technology, dana. what else do you they'll be buying? >> ipads. our office is filled with people who want ipads, have ipads. i'm seeing it in the stores. everyone is using ipads as a way to do business and a way to connect. >> you're right. i see ipads in restaurants. they use it for the wine list

and all sorts of stuff. so many stores opened even earlier on black friday morning this holiday weekend. some were open on thanksgiving day as well. so how successful is the strategy? >> i think retailers are looking to keep opening earlier and earlier to definitely gain traffic. we know some of the outlet malls opened at midnight. kohls is open at 3:00 a.m. it's successful. everyone wants to gain traffic and share the most. they all know black friday is one of the most important holidays and the weekend is important. this weekend is really one of the key weekends to the kickoff to the holiday season. >> kim, there a time in the next few weeks to find the best bargains on bigger ticket items like electronics? what price discounts can we have, and what are you expecting in terms of where the bargains are? >> well, that's what has really been different this year is the bargains started as early as october, and they're just ongoing. so if you see a good deal you don't need to wait. in this year, patience doesn't really pay off. you can get the discounts early just because retailers are so desperate for them. one of the best examples of this

is with smart phones. we've seen competition over the monthly feeious pay. not so much with the phone itself, but the monthly fires as low as $25 from virgin mobile and now others are competing in the space too. we're seeing early competition, which of course is great for consumers. >> dana, last year we had seen a return to traditional gifts -- comfort foods, board games for the whole family. the trend holding? are shoppers interested in treating rather than investing? >> i think they are still interested in comfort gifts. i think boots are going to be big. i think it's going to be another sweater holiday and the ipad holiday. >> what about online, kim? what is the best strategy for online shopping? are there better prices available there than the brick and mortar stores? >> yes. we're actually seeing similar prices in both places. the difference is when you're online you can be a salvier shopper. you can do your price comparisons, look for discount codes before you check out online. make sure to look for a free shipping code because free shipping is pretty much being offered across the board this

holiday season. you don't want the pay extra if you don't have to. type in free shipping and the retailer name and you can find a code in most cases. it's really easy to be smart when you're shopping online. >> interesting. let's make some predictions, ladies. last year we all know that every year there is another big hot item for kids or for everybody. and you're talking about ipads right now, dana. but last year we had the zhu zhu pets. what is your prediction this year? >> i think it's the justin bieber singing dolls. they're really huge. they just hit stores. they're in toys r us, they're rolling out to other retailer. $30 for a sing gift. that's the hot gift. >> what is the age on that sing doll? >> pretty much preteens. what you're seeing is when preteens are into it, the young adults sometimes lamp on to it. their parents really of course want to buy it for them. >> dana, what is your prediction? >> i think it's an ipad. i think the ipad is appealing to all aging right now. it's going to be the gift that people save for in order to buy. >> who is well-positioned retail

speaking this year? >> i think macys is very well-positioned. they have both bloomingdale's and macy's exclusives are a are out there. it's working for them. limited and victoria's secret and bath and bodyworks. >> kim, same question. >> you know the big discount stores, amazon, walmart, places you can go to get the best price possible, those are doing really well. and i think you'll see people gravitating to those stores because they know people want to be savvy. they want to make sure they're paying as little as possible. >> all right. we'll leave it there. happy holidays, ladies. we'll see you soon. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> happy shopping as well. dana telsey, kimberly palmer. coming up, it's more than just ketchup. the heinz chairman and ceo tells me his recipe for reaching american consumers, and what is selling in your grocery store. and making sure everybody gets enough to eat this holiday season. how rescuing leftovers feeds a rising need. as we take a break, a look at how the stock market ended the week. ♪

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what was once 57 varieties is now more than 6,000 products globally. the world's largest ketchup maker knows we are what we eat. joining me now is ceo of heinz, william johnson. bill, great to have you on the program. welcome. >> thanks, maria. good to be here. >> so heinz has been in business since 1869. you have brands like heinz ketchup, or ida, weight watchers. what do consumers want to eat? >> there are two takes. first, the consumer is probably lacking in confidence to a greater extent than i've ever seen in my 36 years in the packaged goods industry. but the good news for us is they still want to eat ketchup. they still want to use it virtually at every meal. they still occasionally go out. and when they do, they're going down to quick-serve restaurants, which is good for us. or ida potatoes have done very

well. outside the u.s. our soups and beverages are doing well. so from our perspective, we've done fairly well through the period. i have to say consumers are hurting in their value orientation to the degree i've never seen. >> the packaged food industry has received a lot of scrutiny when it comes to health and wellness. how prevalent are preservatives like high fructose corn syrup in heinz product? >> first off, high fructose corn syrup is not a preservative. they're not very prevalent in our products. some of the ketchups use hfcs. outside the united states it's all sugar and we have launched a variety called simply heinz in the u.s. that is all sugar in the u.s. other preservatives are used depending on the markets and the length of time products stay in distribution. but health and wellness is still critical to consumers which is why we have been so obsessive in salt reduction and taking fat out where appropriate. >> right. so are your reduced sugar or salt products more expensive?

>> it depends on the market, but in some cases yes because of the fact that we may use more tomatoes or we may use different sauces. in some cases it's just the difficulty of getting sugar. in the united states, sugar is more expensive than any other country in the world. so as a consequence of that, when we launch a product with sugar in the u.s., it is a little more expensive than when we launch one that doesn't have it. >> very interesting. heinz's reach is truly global. you're pushing to have 20% of worldwide sales from the merging markets by 2013. talk to us about that. obviously a very important part of the world for you. >> it is. the way i explain it to my management team, and in fact this morning i had a global town hall meeting with all 30,000 employees, is that there are 400 million consumers between the united states and the uk, which are our two largest markets, which means there are 6.4 billion consumers in other markets that we have an opportunity to serve. and so for us as we expand into those markets, the growth is substantial. first quarter just ended for us. we did 18% of our sales in those

emerging markets up from just 5% about seven or eight years ago. they contributed virtually all the top-line growth in the company, growing at a 22% organic rate. so it's just an opportunity, and it's one that i think benefits all of us as those markets continue to prosper and grow. >> are consumer choices very different in those areas compared to the united states? >> i think it depends on the business. the good news about ketchup is we sell it everywhere. in fact, we built a new ketchup phamry in china. we sell ketchup in virtually every country which we operate. certainly some of the markets, for example, china and indonesia, soy sauce is far more popular than ketchup. so we're a large soy sauce producer in those markets. in other markets, soups and beans for example in western europe. so it varies. but the good news for us is they fit within our three core categories. and the good news particularly is that ketchup sells anywhere and everywhere we take it. >> bill, so many ceos that i speak with cite uncertainty about government economic policies. that something that hinders their decision-making policy?

what is it going to take to get businesses to add heads to the payroll? will you be hiring in 2011? >> we're certainly hiring outside the united states as our business continues to go. i think it's intransigence. i think the inability to come together to ultimately solve the big products in the markets which is the economy is holding businesses back. when you build a house, you build it on a sound structure and you don't build it on floating sands. i think the concern is particularly in the political environment we're operating in now that there is no certainty about anything -- about taxation, about regulation, about whatever it may be. and i think in the developed markets, until that changes, i think business is going to be very cautious with spending money. i think outside the developed markets, businesses are seeing significant opportunities for growth and investment potential. and as a result, i think you're seeing more cash and resources directed to those markets at this time. but i think it's certainly fixable. you know, i travel to china frequently. and there an expression in china that i have found very valuable.

and that expression is fix problem, not blame. and i think once we stop blaming each other for all the problems and start addressing our talents towards the problem itself, i think we can make great progress. >> it's a great point, bill. because there certainly is a lot of blaming going around. you sponsored a study of $30 ceos of billion companies. you published in a book called "what i wish i knew." did the study tell you anything surprising about corporate america? >> you know, it told me a couple of things that were surprising to me. one, i sometimes felt that i was the only one that felt any isolation or loneliness. it turns out to be a very common attribute among ceos. it taught me that we need to do a much better job of training and preparing leaders for the future whether it be a ceo or any other role. and it taught me that american business is in pretty good hands and multinational businesses equally so. but i think the real interesting finding for me in the study was the recognition by all of us that we need to do a better job of developing future leaders and successors. not only in our industries, but

in politics and other facets of life by passing on what we know, and not passing on with recrimination, but passing on with insights and perspective those things we have learned, particularly those of us who have been around a long time there is nothing that can replace experience. and i think if we can bottle that, package that as the book tried to do, we can pass that on. and i think we all benefit. >> my thanks to bill johnson, heinz ceo. up next on the "wall street journal report," the new faces of hunger. has a brutal recession impacted need in the u.s.? what charities are serving up. and become a fan [ male announcer ] in the past, landing an airplane

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"chevy runs deep." ♪ works to get healthy food into neighborhoods that have very little access. the corner of that is our market program. we have acorn squash, butternut squash. we have salad greens, we have carrots, and we have potatoes. everything here today is excess food from farmers in new york state. >> i live in this neighborhood for over 20 years. my kids grew up here, went to school here. i prefer the fresh food than the canned food, because i grew up on fresh vegetables. >> you want one or two? >> the poverty level here is around 30%. obviously it's well above manhattan and well above national numbers. now with 277 households registered, 80% of those people are unemployed. we try to get them a third of their serves for every two

weeks. well give enough so every person in the household has enough produce for those two weeks and then they come back again. >> many people are finding it a little bit difficult to eat natural because of the fast food lifestyle. >> find out what the farmers are providing, we put a recipe together, and we share our expertise. >> the market is very good. it's helpful for the good. because that's the way they save a little extra money in their pockets. >> hunger may not take center stage for many of us during the holiday season, but nearly one in six americans does not have enough food to eat, including one in four children. joining me now is jilly stephens, executive director of city harvest, a food rescue organization. jilly, wonderful to have you on the program. thank you so much for joining us. >> god to be here. >> city harvest feeds over 300,000 people each week in new york city. how do you do it? >> we do it with fleets of 17 refrigerated vehicles that picks up food that would otherwise go to waste. we deliver it to another part of

new york city where someone's hungry. >> amazing. and more than 50 million americans are food insecure, up to 36 million when the recession began in december '07. so things are getting worse in that regard. these are the highest numbers, or some of the highest numbers since the usda began monitoring food security. >> these are the highest numbers on record, so yes, you're right. more than 50 million americans are really struggling with hunger within their households. more than 17 million of them are children. it is the highest number on record. and it's statistics that is mirrored in new york city where city harvest is working. >> who is in need most? >> we're seeing a lot of people who are turning to emergency food programs, soup kitchens and food pantries for the first time in their lives. so we're seeing people that we've seen for many years who struggled to pay their rent, pay medical bills, pay utilities and still have enough to put food on the table.

and typically turn to soup kitchens or food pantries typically towards the end of the month. and now we're seeing a lot of americans who are standing in line for the first time in their lives. >> how stable is the emergency food supply right now, then? does city harvest and organizations like yours nationally have enough to meet this kind of demand? >> well, what we're hearing from the soup kitchens and food pantries that we bring food to is that demand continues to be high. the soup kitchens and food pantries we bring food to reported this time last year that they had seen a spike in demand of 15%. and what we've heard from them so far this year is that that demand hasn't begun to go down. >> can you talk to us about the demographics of the people most in need? >> well, it really runs the gamut. we're seeing a lot of seniors, especially in new york city. but i think, again, it's across the country as a whole, seniors who are living on a fixed income. we know that of those 50 million americans who struggle with hunger, 17 million or more than 17 million of them are children.

so some of the country's most vulnerable are really struggling with this issue of not having enough to eat. >> so what is access to healthy and fresh food like in an urban area like new york? >> well, in new york city it's very difficult. we're working in some of the poorest communities in the country, and it's hard. i mean a lot of the people that we're working with know what it -- know what they should be doing to have a healthier lifestyle. but when it comes to accessing fresh fruits and vegetables, it's very, very difficult. >> what should they be doing? >> well, we're working with a lot of those communities to bring massive quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables. we're working with a lot of the corner stores or bodegas to help the owners begin to stock a healthier food. we partner with the new york city department of health on some of those initiatives. >> what advice might you have for people who want to get involved, volunteer, donate? >> well, with city harvest, to learn more about how to help they can go to our website, which is cityharvest.org and we can tell people how to volunteer

and donate and just get involved and have an impact on hunger. across the nation, city harvest is a member of feeding america. there are virtually no counties in the country that aren't somehow a member of feeding america. visit the feeding america website and find your local food bank or food rescue organization. >> jilly, good to have you on the program. >> thank you so much. >> thank you so much. we appreciate your time today. up next, a look at the news this upcoming week that will have an impact on your money. and then the price of your ksgiving dinner give you something to be thankful for or sticker shock? we'll talk turkey about what's for dinner.

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for more on our show and your guests, check out the website, wsjr.cnbc.com. you'll also find a link to my blog, investor agenda@cnbc.com. hope you'll check it out. now the stories in the week ahead that may move the markets and impact your money. tuesday the case-shiller index of home prices across the nation will be out. and the latest reading of consumer confidence also due out on tuesday. on wednesday, december 1st, total auto sales will be released as well as the institute for supply and management's reading on activity in the manufacturing sector. friday, the highly anticipated employment report. we will find out the number of jobs the economy lost or gained in the month of november. and finally today, if you're still feeling full from thanksgiving, you're not alone. some numbers to digest before the bills for holiday shopping arrive. the average cost of turkey and trimmings for ten this year,

$43.47. according to an annual survey from the american farm bureau federation. this is 1.3% higher than in 2009. turkey and packaged stuffing down a bit in price, but the rising cost of some staple ingredients like milk contributed to a bigger bill. 112 volunteer shoppers in 34 states hunted for the least expensive items. that will do it for us today. thank you so much for joining me. next week i'll will reporting from london about economies and jobs the world over. each week keep it right here where wall street meets main street. have a great week, everybody. i'll see you again next weekend.

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