Business Headlines: TJX, iParty & Klout Scores

BOSTON (CBS) - Apparently people still *do* like to shop for bargains.

TJX, which owns TJ Maxx and Marshalls says sales were up four percent last month from the same month last year.

What`s even more surprising is that business picked up even as weather turned colder towards the end of the month.

No Party for iParty
The weather wasn`t so good for iParty though. The Dedham-based company released its October sales Thursday and said that last month's nor'easter was a big reason its sales fell - 11 percent in October.

The company says the days before Halloween are typically its best of the year and Halloween itself is the busiest day.

What's Your Klout Score?

How influential are you on social media?

A new start-up website called Klout is actually giving people and companies scores for how active they are on sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

(Klout says the @CBSBoston Twitter score is 54.)

It doesn`t just take into account the number of followers, friends or tweets, but it uses an algorithm to score how influential some person or company is on other users.

Some business leaders say the Klout score oversimplifies the intricacies of social media, but a lot of business execs admit they are checking their Klout score.

Watch The BBJ Report

Lisa van der Pool of the Boston Business Journal can be seen weekdays at 6 a.m. on WBZ-TV.