Discount retailer Dollar Tree Inc. said Thursday its same-store sales and total sales were stronger than expected in the first quarter as customer traffic increased.

Dollar Tree said same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least one year, grew 9.2 percent in the fiscal first quarter. Its total sales rose 14 percent, to $1.2 billion from $1.05 billion. In February, the company said same-store sales would grow in the low- to mid-single digits, and total sales would be between $1.13 billion to $1.16 billion.

Read the rest of the story.....

Big Lots Inc. stores often operate in aged retail centers aimed at discount-minded shoppers, but its next venture will move it into a new neighborhood.

The Columbus-based closeout merchandise seller will open a 35,000-square-foot store near the Polaris Fashion Place mall, in a former Linens ‘n Things Inc. storefront vacated last year when the home goods retailer closed.

Read the rest of the story.....

If there are silver linings to the recession, they're not immediately apparent. After all, the national unemployment rate is 8.1 percent, the highest since 1983, and economists predict it will reach 9 percent by 2010. Gross domestic product is forecast to shrink more this year than at any other time since the Great Depression. And across the country, stores are closing, municipal budgets are tightening, and banks are begging for bailouts.

But a handful of industries, companies, and products are doing well—relatively speaking. They run the gamut from Quarter Pounders to contraceptives, but they share a key component: Whether they help people pivot to new careers, cut costs at home, or simply escape from all the bad news, they're poised not only to weather the economic storm but to, in some way, benefit from it. "There always is a silver lining for people who choose to look past the doom and gloom and find one," says Robyn Feldberg, president of the National Résumé Writers' Association, which represents an industry that's bucking the overall trend. "In adversity, there is always potential for innovation."

Read the rest of the story.....

Confused with all of the information flying around these days about the elections and the economy? The following is a great article that we found over at Good.

We’ve got a presidential election coming up and we’re in the throes of an economic meltdown. The media isn’t providing much understanding. The debates don’t help all that much either. So here are three sites that do a great job of consolidating clear, useful information.


Untwisting the Campaigns’ Claims: Most of the claims we’ve heard in the debates so far have been misleading. The candidates are expert at twisting facts and spinning. But we’ve been really impressed with CNN’s well edited Fact Check column.

Keeping Up with the Polls: To get all the day’s polls, incorporated into one simple, yet comprehensive electoral map, check electoral-vote.com. The campaigns themselves use it to stay informed.

Making Sense of the Money Meltdown: It is remarkable how little understanding one comes away with listening to the 24-hour saturation coverage of the credit crisis/mortgage meltdown/bailout-rescue plan given the saturation coverage in the media. The Money Meltdown consolidates and organizes the best information so you’re not just swimming in terrifying gibberish and superficialities.