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“For the holidays, the tablets will be mostly Android-based, plus the iPad,” said Mike Vitelli, Best Buy’s President of North and South American business, in an interview.

Wal-Mart Stores is offering to buy South African retailer Massmart Holdings for approximately $4.25 billion.

The struggle for the bookseller centers on the company's plans for competing in the era of electronic books.

Buried in a story on Best Buy's retail strategy, CEO Brian Dunn mentioned a startling fact: Internal estimates showed that the iPad had cannibalized sales from laptop PCs by as much as 50%.

The downward trend of bookstore sales continued in July with sales declining 2.3%, to $1.08 billion, according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau

Retail sales are expected to show an increase in August despite weakness in auto sales. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect retail sales will increase 0.3 percent in August following a 0.4 percent rise in July.

Best Buy's earnings jumped 61% as the retailer rebounded from a weakened year-earlier quarter on higher revenue and margins.

The electronics retailer believes it can rebuild its brand and attract customers by bringing the Web.

Retailers are reporting surprisingly solid gains for August even as unusually hot weather and job worries kept a lid on back-to-school buying.

Social networking website Facebook is dipping into the brick-and-mortar world by selling gift cards at retailer Target that can be used toward purchasing virtual products for games hosted on the site.