hi, everyone. welcome to "on the money." i'm becky quick. will retailers be stuffed with profits? we'll talk black friday, cyber monday, and the most wonderful time of the year with the ceo of macy's. affordable holiday wines that are great any time of the year. how to find them, what they cost, and i might just have a little taste. "on the money" starts right now. here's a look at what's making news. it is the most wonderful time of

the year for the retailers, at least. black friday or maybe even thanksgiving day kicked off the holiday season when retailers make about 20% of their profits. it is the season that could make the difference between profit and loss of the year and the early numbers show a strong start. plunging oil prices because of oversupply and weak demand. oil prices are falling even further, below $70 a barrel on friday. it was a quiet holiday, shortened week for the markets. the nasdaq hit a new 14-year high. the markets were mixed on friday. it is even stronger than first thought. the gdp grew at an annual rate of 3.9% last quarter. that was up from the previous measure of 3.5%.

apple surpassed several hundred billion dollars. the turkey is digested and the leftovers are in the fridge. now it is for that great holiday pastime, shopping. who better to join us this terry lundgren? he is the chairman and ceo of macy's. it is great to see you today. >> thank you, becky. happy to always talk to you. >> thank you for joining us today. i know this is a really busy time of year for you. i just wonder how you think the consumer is doing this year compared to the last few years and how the early numbers are going. >> well, i think we have all said that we expected the consumer to be behaving slightly differently by now, but they are spending more money clearly on health care and technology. there's lots of places where they're spending more money.

but the first nine months of the year, you haven't seen it in discretionary items. it's been okay, but it hasn't been robust. i think the consumer is starting to feel better right about now. the gas prices are big news today and all last week. that's got to help the consumer. got to put more money in the consumer's pocket. i feel very strongly this is going to be a good finish to the year. we should be off to a good start by 2015 with some of these strong, solid economic numbers start to turn positive as we look forward. >> i have known you for a lot of years. you sound almost hesitant. is that fair to say, or am i misjudging that? >> i'm optimistic about what should happen and what could

happen. but in the last several months, it really hasn't happened as you have seen. we have done well, but that's because we have taken market share. but for us to perform at the top of our game, that will come when all boats are rising. that will come when the economy is performing well and gdp is growing at three-plus percent. >> who have you been taking market share from? >> it's hard to say, but we've been grown by $4.4 billion in the last four years alone. that's without adding new stores. i think a big part of our performance and our success has been our omni channel strategy, which has worked so well. we are the eighth largest internet company in america. not a retail company. that's been a big part of our strategy. it's worked really well for us. i think that puts us in a unique

position for many of our come pette pette -- competitors. >> how do your employees feel about that? >> when we hire those individuals, we do so with the clear understanding you will be working on these holiday periods, but we have 176,000 employees year round and those employees get first choice. we ask our core employees if they wanted to work, but it was up to them to volunteer to work on thanksgiving day. 85% of the jobs that we needed to fill for thursday evening were filled by those core employees. a, they were getting time and a half. b, many of them told us that they wanted to work on thanksgiving. they were done with their turkey dinner. they wanted to come out and work that thanksgiving evening, and

they also wanted to have black friday off for the first time. they're not used to having black friday off. >> i never really thought about that either. let's talk about the iconic macy's thanksgiving day parade. that is a tradition in my house. tens of millions watched it. is this a good problem to have? i know having this for 88 years, but how do you grow your brand on top of that? >> you know, it wasn't so long ago when macy's was not a national company and we couldn't even advertise on our macy's thanksgiving day parade. that was a huge advantage for us. it's only been a few years since we've had this opportunity to advertise on the third most watched television program in america. we couldn't be more proud of the parade itself. it is our gift that we give

every year back to americans. frankly, it is being picked up now around the world, so it is something very special to us. i know your family and my family couldn't feel more proud about delivering a macy's thanksgiving day parade every year. >> terry, thank you so much for joining us. >> my pleasure, becky. >> have a wonderful holiday shopping season. up next, we are "on the money." who are the people in your neighborhood? later, if you are looking to make a charitable contribution, we'll tell you how to make sure your donation lands in the right hands. take a look at how the stock market ended the week.

thanksgiving weekend means about 50 billion in sales for the retail industry. that's a huge kickoff to the holiday shopping season, but for millions of independently owned businesses it is an important time to reconnect with shoppers in their local communities. kate rogers takes a look at small business saturday. >> reporter: sablack friday and cyber monday on small business saturday, local shops get their chance to strike holiday gold. for owners who runs new york city jewelry store, phoenix rose, it is the official kickoff for retail madness. >> i'm seeing increasing sales on small business saturday. everything is made basically in the west village and people like that. >> reporter: owner of lilac

chocolates is also feeling the community love. he says the american express promotion brings added foot track for the 91-year-old manhattan based store. >> it is one of our busiest saturdays of the year. >> reporter: and the holiday is gaining traction. last year small business saturday saw nationwide sales of $5.7 billion. but for ron and joan fish, it is not so easy bringing in shoppers for big ticket items on small business saturday. >> unfortunately, we can't drive the customer into the store anymore. when they're ready to shop, they come in. it is so hard for us, to bring them in for any type of promotion. >> reporter: customers are finding out about the business

on instagram where the store has more than 24,000 followers who will see the small biz saturday deal this year. >> 10% off everything in the store. >> reporter: good news for businesses like phoenix rose. nearly 75% of americans plan to shop on small business saturday. i'm kate rogers. joining us right now is denise pickett, she is president of american express open. open is a card issuer for small business owners. is it just me or is it getting harder and harder to be a little guy competing against these giant companies? >> small businesses offer convenience. o a lot of unique onsumers and items and personalized service. >> you're right about the

uniqueness too. it's got to be something different. i think about all the shopping i do online now. if you want to get really good discounts, they say you have to sell in bulk. that's not going to happen with small businesses. what do they need to get additional people indoors? >> we created that five years ago. it was really in response to the most pressing needs we saw for small business owners, which is how do we get that traffic during the holiday season. this is the fifth year of small business saturday, and it is bigger and better than its ever been. >> is this a one off for the year or something that helps them throughout the holiday season? >> we were really interested in that. we studied consumers. 77% of consumers who shopped on small business saturday said this is going to encourage us to shop between the small business saturdays. >> what are some of the

responses that you have gotten back from people? what do people think about it? what have they thought worked really well? >> consumers and small business owners really love it. consumers love it because it supports small business in their community. small merchants love it because we're giving them a lot of tools to actually promote their programs. we offer it on our #shopsmall. the chance for merchants to go and get some promotional tools and some examples of what programs will run. it's been successful for many merchants around the country. >> thank you so much for joining us today. >> thank you, becky. i hope you shop small. >> i do. up next, which charities deserve your donations? how to make sure you are giving to the right cause. and later, bargain bottle shopping. expert entertaining advice for

there is no easier way to show gratitude than by donating to a worthy cause. many americans receive phone calls and letters requesting contributions to various charitable organizations, but how do you figure out the best way to give and the best places to give? here with us is sharon epperson. >> it is the season of giving and americans are doing just that. about 95% of households give to charities. this type of generosity is not only from the rich. it is across the board. >> we hear very consistently that it is an important element of their financial planning regardless of what affluence level they have. >> it amounted to over $300

billion last year alone, accounting for 2% of gdp last year. >> how do you find a reputable organization? >> when you decide what mission you want to support, go to one of these websites. guide star. it has a lot of information about accounting and it has the actual irs form that you need to be a tax-exempt organization. then charity watch goes a little bit deeper into the finances of the company. and it really looks at how much money actually it takes to raise every $100 that you give. in order to get your money --

>> yeah. >> that's the key point. that's the key point because you want to know when you're giving money how much it cost them to spend on that. >> what if you're not sure which charity to give to? can you do something and do it before the end of the year? how does that work? >> a lot of people may not know which charity to give money to. give money to a donor advice fund. you make a contribution. you get a tax deduction, then you can decide where that money is going to go. you don't have to do it by the end of the year. >> does part of that money go to running that fund? >> you can see your money grow because you can invest some of that money and you can put actual securities into a donor advice fund. you can put stocks and mutual funds in there as well. it is a great way to give and to

give if you're not sure exactly which charities you're ready to contribute at this particular time. you want to make sure a significant amount of money is going to programming. you should be looking at about 75% of the money going to programming and the other part is going to be administrative costs and fund raising. you want to see the bulk of it going to the programs and not to executive salaries. >> thank you so much. up next, a look at the news for the week ahead and cheers to this. a guide to the best wines this holiday season whether you're watching you're budget or loing to splurge. like us on facebook, by the way.

for more on our show and our guests, you can go to our website. and you can follow us on twitter. here's the stories coming up that may impact your money this week. monday is also world aids day. on tuesday, we get november auto sales. construction spending for october is also out on tuesday. and friday is the big number of the week. that's the november jobs report. we get that that day. october factory orders will be hitting on friday.

when you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are. happy 100th birthday to the magic of walt disney. if you are missing that final touch, the perfect bottle of wine, you're in the right place. ray isle, it is great to see you. >> thanks for having me back. it is holiday season. it is time for wine. >> you are one of my favorite guests ever. >> the holidays, for rone thing a huge amount of wine is sold in the u.s. in the fourth quarter and it is because of entertaining. you're going to need sparkling for parties. >> sure. >> one, you need an all-purpose sparkling. affordable, not too crazy, but really good at the same time. pres prosecco. 16 bucks.

really nice bottle of wine for the price. at the same time, it is very unusual to get a sparkling wine that is all organic. it is kind of cool that way too. >> crisp today. >> little crisp apple, peach. >> i like this. >> i'm going to convert you before the end of today. >> you have a little ways to go, but i do like this. >> then you need an all-purpose white and an all-purpose red. i like this because it is midpoint between a chardonnay and a blanc. >> i like a chardonnay. >> 13 bucks a bottle. >> and it is from oregon. >> made in the usa. for red, you need a counterpart red. also affordable. this is welcome to the life of a

wine writer. >> it is a good life. >> this is cabernet. this is from the horse heaven hills, hence h3. >> what is horse heaven hills? >> it is a remote eastern washington area. makes fantastic grapes. 12 or 13 bucks a bottle. got that beautiful -- straight up cabernet, beautiful blackberry fruit. >> i like that too. this is light. >> it is pretty good. if you buy by the case, most wine stores will give you a 10% discount on the case. >> how is the wine business doing right now? >> it is doing well. it has been on a 15-year incline slowly up. the u.s. is becoming more of a wine drinking country. it is incremental.

>> prosecco has jumped off the chi invested in prosecco, my life would be really nice. private island or something. >> what about if i want to splurge? i feel like we have to toast. >> absolutely. i like dom rionard. i think it is equal quality to dom perignon. yeastiness. >> thank you so much for joining us. >> always happy to be here. >> that's the show for today. i'm becky quick. thank you so much for joining

me. we're "on the money." see you back here next weekend. - ( helicopter whirring ) - ( roars ) ( siren wails ) ( pop music playing ) ♪ when you're ready ♪ ready, ready, ready ♪ come and get it ♪ get it, get it ♪ when you're ready, come and get it ♪ ♪ na na na na ♪ na na na na na na na ♪ ♪ when you're ready, come and get it ♪ ♪ na na na na... female announcer: it's a great big world and it can all be yours. here and only here. ♪ come and get it.

"nbc 10 news" starts now. >> a house party in philadelphia ends with one person dead. now police are questioning the dozens of party-goers who may have witnessed the crime. it's a parent's worst nightmare and one philadelphia family is living it. we'll update you on the search efforts for the 21-year-old college student who went missing after a night out. we'll get a reprieve today with temperatures in the mid 50s. here's a live look at the center city skyline where it will be dry and relatively pleasant. this is "nbc 10 news today." i'm rosemary conners. it's 5:30 on this sunday. brittney shipp is trackinhe