Retail sales

Customers walk into a Walmart store in Methuen, Mass. in this Feb. 20, 2012, photo. (Elise Amendola, AP)

Bare shelves becoming widespread at Wal-Marts

More than 1,000 emailed complaints signal that Wal-Mart Stores’s restocking challenges are more widespread than the world’s largest retailer has said.

Wal-Mart customers from Hawaii to Florida and from Texas to Vermont wrote to express their frustration after Bloomberg News reported March 26 that there aren’t enough workers in the stores to keep shelves stocked, cash registers manned and shoppers’ questions answered. In response to the original article, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said in part, “The premise of this story, which is based on the comments of a handful of people, is inaccurate and not representative of what is happening in our stores across the country.”

Joseph Barbarito, of Rifton, N.Y., holds a sign outside the Walmart in Danbury, Conn. Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013 during a protest to deliver a petition signed by more than 250,000 Walmart customers and concerned citizens nationwide urging the retail giant to stop the sale of assault weapons and munitions. (AP Photo/The Connecticut Post,Autumn Driscoll )

Walmart being pressured to halt some gun sales

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Since the Academy of New Media Middle School in Columbus, Ohio, opened in 2011, it has scraped by, with its principal cleaning toilets and a math teacher pressed into service as school nurse. Only $250,000 in gifts from the Walton Family Foundation keeps the 85-student charter school alive.

In this Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012 photo, holiday shoppers make their way through The Mall at Millenia in Orlando, Fla. U.S. holiday retail sales this year are the weakest since 2008, after a shopping season disrupted by storms and rising uncertainty among consumers. A report out Tuesday that tracks spending, called MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, says holiday sales increased 0.7 percent. Analysts had expected sales to grow 3 to 4 percent. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Washington gridlock blamed for slow holiday sales

WASHINGTON - U.S. holiday sales growth slowed by more than half this year after gridlock in Washington soured consumers’ moods and Hurricane Sandy disrupted shopping, MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse said.

FILE - In this Friday, Nov. 29, 2008, file photo, carts full of merchandise ordered online are rolled to the main packing area for shipping at the Overstock.com warehouse, in Salt Lake City. Cyber Monday, coined in 2005 by a shopping trade group that noticed a spike in online sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving when people returned to their work computers, is the next in a line of days that stores are counting on to jumpstart the holiday shopping season. This year it is expected to be the biggest online shopping day of the year for the third year in a row. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)

Cyber Monday likely to be busiest online sales day

NEW YORK  — Bye-bye Black Friday. So long Small Business Saturday. Now, it’s Cyber Monday’s turn.

Black Friday shopping madness

Do you have some great Black Friday pics of your own? Please share! Add to this slideshow by sending those photos to yourpics@standard.net.

FILE-In this Friday, Nov. 25, 2011, file photo, Sergio Lira, of Phoenix, holds Christmas bulbs as he shops at the Home Depot in Phoenix. Americans are expected to spend more during what's traditionally the busiest shopping season of 2012, but they're not exactly ready to shop 'til they drop like they have been in the past two years. The National Retail Federation, the nation's largest retail trade group, said Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012, that it expects sales during the winter holiday shopping period in November and December to rise 4.1 percent this year. (AP Photo/Arizona Republic, Tom Tingle)

Sales expected to rise during holiday season

NEW YORK — Americans are expected to spend more during what’s traditionally the busiest shopping season of the year, but they’re not exactly ready to shop ‘til they drop like they have been in the past two years.

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