For years, investors wanted nothing to do with Wal-Mart Stores [WMT-N] [WMT-N]. The discounter’s best days seemed to be behind it. Growth was slowing. Competitors such as Target, with its more upscale offerings, were stealing customers.
Well, don’t look now but Wal-Mart’s stock is on fire.
With consumers battling rising energy and food costs, plunging home values [...]

Alfonso Contrisciani, whose company oversees food services at Nationals Park, walked the concourses at the stadium May 20, ignoring much of the game against the Philadelphia Phillies. Wearing his dress whites and then changing into a sports coat to go incognito, he quietly observed everything: The staff behind concession stands. The kitchen crews.
As vice president [...]

Industry followers say shoppers’ fear, which has been escalating since last July, could very well worsen what ails us.Such spending cuts could be “a self-fulfilling prophecy” and could hasten the economy’s slide, said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center.”I don’t think (the spending slump) has bottomed out,” said Candace Corlett, principal [...]

The better-than-expected February inflation reading probably will be reversed in the coming months because of the recent spike in energy prices. Crude oil hit a record high this week above $110 per barrel and gasoline pump prices jumped to a national record of $3.28.But for February, energy prices posted a 0.5 percent decline. Gasoline prices [...]

Food prices rose 5.2 per cent in the year to February, figures out yesterday show.
Grocery foods were the worst, according to Statistics New Zealand. The cost of dairy products has soared, with butter costing almost twice as much as it did last year.
In the past month alone, milk has gone up by 4 per cent [...]