Brian Sozzi

For a retail company with a profoundly simple business model and interior layout, there always seems to be interesting Costco secrets floating around the internet. How many rotisserie chickens does Costco sell in a given year? Hey, did you know that Costco sells caskets and really pricey bling online? So as a means to join this Costco cult underworld of facts and figures, Belus Capital Advisors CEO Brian Sozzi has dug through his notes on the company compiled through seven years of client coverage.

At least one Wal-Mart store had so much extra inventory left over after the holidays that it had to use its outdoor center for storage, according to a Vine video shot by a financial analyst. Brian Sozzi, CEO and chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisors, took two Vine videos at five Wal-Mart stores in the Northeast. The first shows an outdoor center used to store surplus items, including big-screen TVs and Campbell's Soup in the wake of the holiday season.

Sears, once America's golden retailer, is a company in crisis. The company has shuttered hundreds of stores in recent years. The embattled company has been selling some its most profitable stores to raise money. Brian Sozzi, chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisors, took poignant photos inside of New Jersey and New York Sears locations. "To understand why Sears is in a ‘sell stores mode,’ one must look no further than the stores themselves, where the truth is to be found," Sozzi writes. His photos show the sad reality of what Sears is today.

lululemon athletica is discounting its black luon yoga pants after the sheer pants debacle that resulted in a massive recall of the product. Brian Sozzi, chief equities strategist at Belus Capital, noticed a pair of the pants marked down at a Philadelphia store. Dozens of customers also tweeted their delight at finding a sale rack in stores.

Brian Sozzi, chief equities analyst at NBG Productions, said Lulu's forecasts may prove too optimistic. "It looks like they're expecting a return to their glory days by the mid-year," he said. "I can't necessarily believe in that, because for the first...

Best Buy's former Chairman Richard Schulze is not expected to present a buyout or other proposal to the company's board anytime soon, a person familiar with the situation said, putting a damper on market expectations that a move might be imminent. Shares of electronics dealer Best Buy cnbc_quoteComponent_init_getData("bby","WSODQ_COMPONENT_BBY_ID0EGAAC15839609","WSODQ","true","ID0EGAAC15839609","off","false","inLineQuote"); rose more than 10 percent on Monday morning to $23.57 amid growing talk that Schulze was , but fell back to around $22, or up 5 percent, on word the bid was unlikely to come soon. Discussions around a leverage buyout are still in the early stages, the person said. Schulze,