By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association. Its members include department store, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet, and independent retailers, and chain restaurants and grocery stores. Members also include businesses that provide goods and services to retailers. NRF represents an industry that contains over 1.6 million U.S. retail establishments with more than 24 million employees and (2005) sales of $4.4 trillion. NRF is also an umbrella group that represents more than 100 associations of state, national and international retailers. - Source: Wikipedia
Internet retailers soon could be required to collect the same sales taxes that consumers pay to their bricks-and-mortar peers, after the Senate agreed Monday to send the Marketplace Fairness Act to the floor for a final vote in coming weeks.
Consumers stayed away from the malls last month as unusually cold weather and late tax refunds took a toll on their usual spring spending fervor.
It's not comparable to Christmas nor Valentine's Day, but Easter spending on honey hams and chocolate bunnies still provides a springtime kick to the American economy, according to a leading national retail group.
In a nonbinding vote, the Senate on Friday showed a willingness to give states greater power to collect sales taxes on purchases from sites such as eBay and Amazon.
In just a few days, a walkout by thousands of dock workers could bring commerce to a near standstill at every major port from Boston to Houston, potentially delivering a big blow to retailers and manufacturers still struggling to find their footing in a weak economy.
Last week, all the major market indexes eked out positive gains, despite the late-week reversal as "fiscal cliff" discussions took a turn for the worse.
For decades, many Americans have lamented the commercialization of Christmas. It's the theme of countless TV shows and movies that have a well-meant core message against excessive materialism.
Online shoppers could end up paying sales tax more often by the end of the year.
With Thanksgiving behind us, investor and consumer attention is firmly focused on two things: the "fiscal cliff" in Washington and the strength of 2012 holiday shopping.
The holiday shopping season got off to a strong start over the long weekend, with nearly 5 in 6 Americans making an appearance at the malls or visiting retailers online as rising spirits prompted an early hunt for bargains.
There's a saying that you can't please all of the people all of the time. But apparently you can if they're holiday shoppers.
Black Friday is a distant memory. Small Business Saturday is long gone. Now, it's Cyber Monday's turn.
From coast to coast, Black Friday started earlier than ever at many stores, with some complaining that it has morphed into more of a "Gray Thursday."
Botox, booze and bulldogs. They're all among the oddball items that retailers will discount as part of Black Friday specials this year.
This holiday season, Burger King won't be the only place where you can have it your way. It used to be enough for stores to promise discounts up to 70 percent to lure shoppers during the busy holiday period. But the ease of ordering online and the sluggish economy changed that. Now they want their shopping just like their fast food: not only cheap, but convenient, too.
