Retail Roundup: Athleta stores, Citadel Outlets job fair, Learning Express

-- Athleta, Gap Inc.'s activewear brand, will open its first store in Southern California on Wednesday. The store, at Fashion Island shopping center in Newport Beach, is the fourth Athleta store opening this year.

The brand, until recently only available online and through its catalog, is slowly breaking into the bricks-and-mortar space. Athleta currently operates two stores in the Bay Area and two in New York, with additional openings slated to open this fall in Los Angeles (at the Grove), Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis. The company plans to open 50 Athleta stores in the U.S. by 2013.

-- Mark your calendars: Citadel Outlets and the City of Commerce Employment & Business Development Center will host an annual job fair at the shopping center Wednesday, Sept. 21. The job fair, in its third year, will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Employers including Puma, Penske Motor Group, Guess by Marciano, Pacific College and Clearpoint Financial Solutions will be on interview to meet job candidates, who should "dress for success" and bring resumes.

A one-hour mini job prep workshop will be held at 9 a.m. Last year more than 5,000 job seekers met with potential employers; this year the City of Commerce mall says it expects 8,000 attendees.

-- Animal rights group Change.org is asking Learning Express stores to stop selling live frogs as toys, citing animal welfare and health concerns. The organization, which has circulated 1,000 petition signatures, says the educational toy retailer is selling live African dwarf frogs in 4-square-inch plastic cubes called "EcoAquariums." Other retailers, including Target, Brookstone and toy store chains, have stopped selling the animals.

-- Andrea Chang

Podcast: Bernanke, the Budget and Steve Jobs

Ben Bernanke’s speech at Jackson Hole, Wyo., was sketchier than it might have been about monetary policy but strikingly detailed about fiscal policy.

As chairman of the Federal Reserve, Mr. Bernanke’s official purview is in the monetary, not the fiscal realm, of course. But in a conversation in the new Weekend Business podcast, Catherine Rampell says he seemed to be deliberately vague about the central bank’s own plans.

While he said the Fed’s full toolkit is available as needed, he didn’t spell out what the bank’s actions might entail. On the other hand, he said that short-term fiscal stimulus, combined with longer-term debt reduction, would do much to invigorate the economy.

In another podcast conversation and in the Economic View column in Sunday Business, Richard Thaler, the University of Chicago economist, says Congress has been much better at spending than at budget-cutting, which is part of what he calls a self-restraint problem.

Like people with a New Year’s Day hangover, many members of Congress find it easy to make promises if they needn’t fulfill them for months or years to come. In his view, imposing legal constraints on spending, through a balanced budget amendment or other means, is unlikely to compel effective action. Voters need to be willing to elect mature adults, who, in turn, need to exercise willpower to make better choices for the country, he says.

Steven P. Jobs, who is stepping down as chief executive of Apple, has had an enormous impact in many fields. In a podcast conversation and in the Unboxed column in Sunday Business, Steve Lohr discusses the qualities of Mr. Jobs as a role model. Above all else, he says, Mr. Jobs is an innovator, and his entire career may be seen as a relentless effort to improve the odds of bringing forth innovation, both for himself and in the organizations he has managed.

And the problem of illegal products passed off as health supplements is the focus of a conversation with Natasha Singer, who tackles the subject on the cover of Sunday Business. Federal authorities are struggling to stop the distribution of these black-market goods, which may endanger consumers’ health.

You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Catherine Rampell on the Fed (33:53); news headlines (25:04); Steve Lohr on Steve Jobs (22:13); Richard Thaler on Congress (15:49); Natasha Singer on black-market supplements (8:59); the week ahead (2:06).

As articles discussed in the podcast are published during the weekend, links will be added to this post.

You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.

Outback Steakhouse runs out of 1 million free steaks, offers coupons instead

Winner, winner, steak dinner? Outback Steakhouse’s new promotion –- for a million diners to satisfy their carnivorous cravings for free -– ran out in less than two days.

But beef eaters who couldn’t claim a voucher on OutbackFreeSteaks.com to one of the 777 participating stores may still be eligible for a $5 coupon.

The restaurant company says its Great Aussie Steakout freebie offer for a 6-ounce special sirloin and side coincides with the launch of its wood-fire grilling method and new menu items.

The Australian-themed chain, with dozens of California locations, is owned by OSI Restaurant Partners of Tampa, Fla.

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-- Tiffany Hsu

Idea for struggling cable companies: Charge per channel [Video]

 

Consumer columnist David Lazarus has an idea for cable companies facing greater competition from the Web: Stop charging customers a lot of money for packages that include shows we don't watch. Instead, he suggests that cable firms take a cue from iTunes and charge for only the channels a subscriber wants. According to the Nielsen Co., a typical cable subscriber watches only about 17 channels, not the hundred or so they pay for.

Read more in his column Friday.

--Pat Benson

Recent columns by David Lazarus:

JetBlue can teach Verizon a thing or two about compassion

Obama needs to add consumer agency to his to-do list

Inflated medical bills mask true cost of care

 

 

 

 

 

Hurricane Irene: Airlines cancel nearly 2,500 flights

With Hurricane Irene bearing down on the East Coast, airlines have canceled nearly 2,500 flights and are warning that several major airports could shut down entirely as early as Sunday.

Because the East Coast is home to the busiest airspace in the country, the cancellations are expected to cause problems at airports throughout the nation, stranding travelers returning from summer vacations.

Based on the projected path of the storm, the impact will be felt at airports from South Carolina to Massachusetts.

Several airline officials predicted that most of the cancellations will take place Sunday, when the storm reaches the nation's busiest airports in New York and Washington, D.C.

"Sunday will be the worst day," said Tim Smith, a spokesman for American Airlines, which plans to cancel 265 flights starting Saturday, primarily in Washington, New York, Virginia and North Carolina.

Delta Air Lines, the nation's largest carrier, announced plans to cancel about 1,300 flights from Saturday to Monday. The canceled flights represent nearly 8% of the airline's total operations for that period, Delta spokesman Anthony Black said.

JetBlue Airways said it plans to cancel 891 flights at airports from North Carolina to Maine.

Several airlines, including Southwest, Delta, United, American and JetBlue, have offered to waive the fees that passengers normally are charged to change reservations for flights over the weekend.

-- Hugo Martin

Photo: Hurricane Irene as shown from a satellite photo. Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

Corporate profits increase as GDP remains sluggish

The nation's gross domestic product may be growing at just a crawl, but corporations aren't doing so badly in this economy, according to data released from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Corporate profits increased in the second quarter, as did the amount of cash businesses had available for investments, as taxes decreased.

Corporate profits increased $57.3 billion in the second quarter, according to the BEA. They had grown $19 billion in the first three months of the year. But that growth didn't play out in the labor market, which experienced an unanticipated slowdown in May and June. The nation added just 316,000 jobs in the second quarter, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That number is only slightly more than economists say we need to add per month for a real recovery.

The amount of internal funds available for investment grew $83.8 billion in the second quarter, after growing $21.1 billion in the first quarter. Tech companies were among those with growing profits in the second quarter. Last month, Google Inc. announced second-quarter net income of $2.5 billion and Apple made $7 billion over roughly the same time period, doubling its earnings from the same period a year ago.

Overall, corporate profits grew 8.3% over a year ago.

Business growth was slowed by turmoil in the financial industry, however. While overall, corporate profit rose, profits at financial institutions decreased $54.2 billion after falling $38.7 billion in the first quarter. Nonfinancial corporations saw profits grow $84.4 billion.

Still, the overall growth in profits was a piece of good news in an overall lackluster data release, according to analysts with IHS Global Insight. The corporate profits data were released with the second estimate for the gross domestic product, which the government now says grew at a rate of 1% in the second quarter, rather than the 1.4% previously projected. The widely expected revision was largely due to a decrease in exports.

Now, economists say they'll look to data in September to determine whether or not the country is headed for another recession -- which could happen whether or not corporate profits continue to increase.

"The U.S. is stuck in this low-growth rut and will be for some time to come. The outlook for employment and personal income growth, by extension, is equally poor as well -- whether the economy prints a negative GDP growth number or not," wrote Steve Blitz, Senior Economist for ITG Investment Research.

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 A new recession threatens lasting damage

Bernacke offers no new help for economy

Companies are afraid to hire, even if business is improving

-- Alana Semuels

Photo: A customer at an Apple store in April. Tech and other companies saw profits boom in the second quarter. Credit: Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times

Hurricane Irene: Home Depot, other outlets swamped ahead of storm

Lines out the doors. Shelves emptied of stockpiles of generators, water bottles, batteries. Hurricane Irene is coming this weekend and East Coast residents are raiding stores to prepare.

The storm is expected hit Saturday and tear its way from the Carolinas up through Massachusetts -- smack in the middle of what was supposed to be one of the year’s busiest shopping seasons for retailers.

But instead of selling back-to-school gear such as binders and clothes, companies such as Walmart and Sears are watching customers scramble to buy tarps, prepackaged foods and cleaning supplies.

BJs Wholesale is sending extra deliveries of batteries, generators, dry grocery items and water to its locations, the chain said.

Through the end of the month, 57% of BJs stores could be affected by Irene, according to Planalytics Inc., which tracks the impact of weather on businesses.

Home Depot is operating a Disaster Response Command Center out of Atlanta with emergency response teams monitoring and replenishing supply at its stories, the company said. It has sent out more than 500 trucks to keep stores stocked with plywood, gas cans and more as demand shifts from the South Atlantic locations up the coast. 

“Our goal is to be the last retailer open and the last to close while keeping associates and customers safe,” Home Depot said in a statement.

Retailers are also planning for post-Irene needs, with recovery products such as pumps, trash bags and chainsaws at the ready.

RELATED:

Hundreds of flights canceled as Hurricane Irene nears East Coast

Hurricane Irene: New York battens down for a dark, wet weekend

-- Tiffany Hsu

Photo: Jim Abel shops for hurricane supplies at a Home Depot in West Palm Beach, Fla. Credit: Joe Raedle / Getty Images