TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said that this year it will create more than 22,000 jobs in the U.S. in a variety of management and line positions as it expands stores and opens new ones.

On Thursday, the day before the annual meeting, the Bentonville, Ark., the retailing giant said in a statement that as part of the plan it would create more than 1,000 jobs in each of several states: Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia.

Last October, Wal-Mart /quotes/comstock/13*!wmt/quotes/nls/wmt (WMT 48.32, +0.07, +0.15%) said it would open or expand 142 to 157 stores during fiscal 2010.

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Due to customer growth, Aldi looks set to open an Atlanta-area distribution centre in America. The facility will hopefully use a space of 482,000 sq ft, and will also add 299,000 sq ft in the future. Commencement of the plan depends on local government approval.

Another eighty stores are planned for America this year. The chain seeks to continue expanding through Florida and Tampa, with another ten stores opening in Florida alone. Aldi's stores are mainly in the eastern half of the country, where the chain opened its first store in Massachusetts this year. Aldi hopes to expand into Texas in 2010.

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Arts and crafts retailer Michaels Stores Inc. improved its performance for the first quarter of 2009, posting net income of $4 million, a big jump up from the company’s $20 million net loss in showed for the first quarter of 2008.

During that period in 2008, the Irving-based company faced non-deductible severance costs that negatively impacted its 2008 effective tax expense rate.

For the first quarter of 2009, total sales at Michaels Inc. reached $852 million, up from $847 million a year earlier.

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There's some good news for shoppers; retail spaces left vacant by Gottschalks will be filled by some fashion favorites!

Retail giant Macy's, made the winning bid on Gottschalks locations in River Park and the Visalia Mall in an auction on Thursday as part of the bankruptcy proceedings.

Forever 21 also made a bid, landing Gottschalk's locations in the Hanford Mall as well as Fashion Fair Mall.

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Consumer confidence jumped in May to its highest level since September. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index now stands at 54.9, up from 40.8 in April.

The index is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households.

“Looking ahead, consumers are considerably less pessimistic than they were earlier this year, and expectations are that business conditions, the labor market and incomes will improve in the coming months,” said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center. “While confidence is still weak by historical standards, as far as consumers are concerned, the worst is now behind us."

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Pet supplies retailer PetSmart Inc. said Wednesday its first-quarter profit rose 12 percent on higher merchandise and service sales.

The company earned $46.3 million, or 37 cents per share, compared with profit of $41.2 million, or 32 cents per share, during the same period a year prior. Revenue increased 9 percent to $1.33 billion from $1.21 billion. The fiscal 2009 first-quarter ended May 3 and the full year ends in January.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected profit of 30 cents per share on revenue of $1.35 billion.

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Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. on Monday reported a 10 percent gain in profit for the fiscal third quarter and raised its adjusted guidance for the year.

The grocery store operator said after the market closed that it earned $16.6 million, or 30 cents per share, for the quarter ended April 1. That's up from $15 million, or 28 cents per share, in the year-earlier quarter.

Total sales grew slightly to $1.73 billion for the quarter from $1.72 billion.

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Edward Jones apparently didn't get the memo that there's a recession going on and that the financial markets have tanked.

The St. Louis-based investment brokerage has big retail expansion plans for the Valley, plus further growth at its campus in Tempe. The slump hasn't derailed those efforts.

"We have identified this as a great opportunity to serve more clients," said Andrea Feeney, a department leader at the Tempe campus who is working on the Valley expansion.

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The Valley's new home market showed more promise last month as both sales and construction permits increased, according to the latest Phoenix Housing Market Letter by analyst RL Brown.

New home sales totaled 912 last month, up from 713 in February but still down from 1,890 in March 2008. Sales had fallen slightly from January to February.

Most of the sales were of inventory or speculative homes - those built without having a contracted buyer - helping to diminish the amount of inventory homes on the market, Brown said. Sales were up despite "really stiff" competition from bank-owned homes, he said.

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The West Valley got a huge bite of spring training action this year, attracting 805,110 baseball fans, a jump from 505,134 in 2008.

More than half of the Cactus League's 1.57 million visitors attended games west of Interstate 17.
The economic punch that carries is not broken down by cities, but the league estimates the statewide economic impact at $359 million.

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In March, there were 200 more new-homes sales across the Valley than the month before. That may not sound like much, but it's significant in the current slowdown.

Last month, 912 new homes sold across metropolitan Phoenix, a 28 percent increase from February, according to RL Brown's latest "Phoenix Housing Market Letter."

Even better for the market is that many of the recently sold new homes were built last year or the year before, either speculatively or for buyers who pulled out of deals. Depleting the inventory of built-but-unsold homes will help the area market rebound.

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Spring brings little sprouts of recovery for the Valley’s housing market. Arizona was one of the first states to feel the housing market crash and now appears to be one of the first heading toward recovery.

The front page of Friday’s USA Today shows Arizona’s housing slump will begin to turn this year. New research from the University of Utah shows the glut of homes for sale here will sell off enough to bring back the demand for new home construction.

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TORONTO, April 8 (Reuters) - Forzani Group (FGL.TO) plans to open more than 25 new stores this year as the country's biggest sporting goods retailer takes advantage of a weak economy and an increase in available property.

Calgary-based Forzani, whose banners include Sport Chek, Sports Experts and Coast Mountain Sports, said on Wednesday it had earmarked about C$30 million to C$35 million for capital expenditures in its 2010 fiscal year, mostly for the store openings.

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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."

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Discount retailer Dollar General Corp. said Tuesday its fourth-quarter profit rose 48 percent on a rise in sales and cost cuts.

Dollar General and its competitors, such as Family Dollar Stores, have benefited as consumers watch every dollar they spend and seek out cheaper goods.

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Woolworths Limited (WOW) said first quarter sales were up 9.6% to $12.82 billion.

The company also maintained its full year sales outlook. Chief executive officer Michael Luscombe said it was a good start to the financial year.

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The supermarket Wm Morrison said yesterday it would open small shops for the first time as the economic downturn gave it scope to speed up its expansion.

Marc Bolland, chief executive, said the group had identified more than 100 locations for new stores and had halted a £1bn share buyback to "preserve its firepower". The recession has weighed heavily on commercial property values and Morrisons said it wanted "maximum financial flexibility" to go shopping for stores.

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SPRING HILL - Warm weather and a stout Valentine's Day shopping crowd helped make last week a favorable one for the retail industry.

The week ending Feb. 14 was the third consecutive week-to-week improvement in the retail sector, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers out of New York.

Some forecasters think the recent numbers are an indication an upswing is not far away.

"It is a sign that things are going to improve this year," said ICSC spokeswoman Erin Hershkowitz.

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EVEN before the economy tanked, discount stores, or dollar stores as Americans call them, were looking healthy. Now their profits are rising like helium-filled balloons. Dollar Tree, a Virginia-based chain of dollar stores, had sales of more than $1.39 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, a 6.8 % increase over the year before. For the whole of 2008, Dollar Tree, which has been in business since 1953, notched up record sales of $4.64 billion.

Family Dollar is prospering, too. The market value of this company, based in North Carolina and with more than 6,600 stores in 44 states, rose 36% last year. Other dollar-store companies have also reported big profits.

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PITTSBURGH- Despite a cutback in new-store openings, management at Dick’s Sporting Goods still sees the country supporting a total of 800 units, up from the 384 it currently operates, chairman and CEO Edward Stack said during the retailer’s fourth-quarter conference call.

"Our business has held up relatively well in this environment," he said of the recession. "We feel there is going to be consolidation in this industry."

Stack specifically pointed to the Chapter 11 filing by Wilsonville, OR-based Joe’s Sports & Outdoor, a 30-store chain in the Northwest. That move could give Dick’s a chance to move into that region of the country, and if bankruptcies by other chains follow, there could be more opportunities, he said.

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