Retailer | featured news

Americans spent briskly during the early spring months in the latest sign that they’re encouraged by the economic recovery. Falling gas prices, a rallying stock market and gains in the job market all fueled Americans’ shopping habits even as cold weather tempered their desire to buy spring fashions.

Sears continues to struggle to get a "decent" return on its assets and the retailer didn't move fast enough to cut expenses after the financial crisis, the CEO said at the annual meeting.

The ad comes after the Plano, Texas-based company last month fired its CEO, Ron Johnson, after 17 months on the job and rehired his predecessor Mike Ullman. Johnson's ambitious changes included getting rid of most sales and bringing in new, hip brands. The strategy was designed to attract younger, wealthier shoppers in a bid to reinvent the stodgy retailer, but it alienated Penney's loyal customers and caused sales to plummet.

Discover makes headway in bringing eBay's online-payments service to physical retailers, but First Data, one of the country's largest merchant processors, has opted not to support the service.

As Bangladesh reels from the deaths of hundreds of garment workers in a building collapse, the refusal of global retailers to pay for strict nationwide factory inspections is bringing renewed scrutiny to an industry that has profited from a country notorious for its hazardous workplaces and subsistence-level wages.

Survivors from a building that collapsed in Bangladesh killing at least 187 mainly women workers described hearing a deafening crack before the complex housing factories supplying Western clothes retailers crashed down in a matter of seconds.

The days of tax-free online shopping could finally be numbered. The Senate is planning to vote on a bill as soon as Monday that would give states the authority to collect sales taxes on all Internet purchases, handing local governments as much as $11 billion per year in added revenue that they are legally owed — but that hasn’t been paid to them for years.

A New York appeals judge on Tuesday stopped J.C. Penney from selling certain Martha Stewart goods until Thursday, when he is expected to decide whether to extend the block while an appeal from Macy's Inc is pending.

A New York State Supreme Court judge ruled that the retailer could at least temporarily sell Martha Stewart-designed housewares under the JCP Everyday label.

J.C. Penney has hired bankers at Blackstone for advice on shoring up its fast-eroding cash. The company is seeking to raise about $1 billion. Bond analysts don't think Penney's operations will be able to generate enough cash to cover the company's needs beyond a year, putting pressure on new Chief Executive Myron "Mike" Ullman to cut costs and look for ways to raise new capital even as he tries to get more shoppers into stores.