Retail Preview: The Year of Turnarounds?

To keep you ahead of the curve during earnings season, The Motley Fool's retail sector will give you a preview of which companies are reporting in the upcoming week. In the process, we'll let you know what happened last quarter so that you'll have an idea of what to expect this time around.

Moving into February, we're going to see the earnings releases come flying out of the woodwork. And next week is just the beginning of the frenzy.

In the world of consumer electronics, there are the haves and the have-nots. Big blue, Best Buy (NYSE:BBY), and big red, Circuit City (NYSE:CC), racked up considerable sales over the holidays. Those flat-screen plasma and high-def TVs are apparently must-have items, especially with the Super Bowl coming up this weekend. Unfortunately, Tweeter (NASDAQ:TWTR) has been struggling mightily. The little guy can't get a break. Will the trend continue, or is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Stay tuned, and we'll let you know what's happening next week.

Another company that's had a bit of a stumble is air-mattress retailer and box-spring killer Select Comfort (NASDAQ:SCSS). It's hard to get a good night's sleep, even with the right Sleep Number, when expectations are changing all the time. Uncertainty does not make the market rest easy. However, at least one Fool thinks 2007 will be a big year for the company, as do many investors in Motley Fool CAPS, our community-intelligence database. We'll see how the company's year begins when it reports next week.

Also on the docket for next week is one restaurant I've never been to and one that I take my wife to as often as she likes -- Cheesecake Factory (NASDAQ:CAKE) and Panera (NASDAQ:PNRA), respectively. The knock on Cheesecake Factory has been a lack of growing same-store sales, but there are those who will say it's hard to grow same-store sales when the restaurants are already packed. We'll see if Cheesecake Factory offers up a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine of its press release go down.

Despite being able to warm customers with tasty soup, toasted bagels, and hot coffee, the winter has not exactly been kind to Panera. There's been a slowdown over the past few months, and the company had to revise its guidance downward because of some storms. I'll be interested to see whether things picked up over the holidays or not, and I'll do my part by taking my wife to our local Panera tonight for a date.

In case you stayed under the covers to survive the cold and weren't able to keep up with our retail news from this week, we've summarized the best for you here. And that's just a small way for us to say thanks for being a devoted reader.

Fool on!

Best Buy is a Stock Advisor pick, while Select Comfort is a Motley Fool Hidden Gems selection.

Retail editor and Inside Value team member David Meier is ranked 329 out of 21,411 in CAPS and does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned. You can view his TMF profile here. The Fool takes its disclosure policy very seriously.