Kmart CorporationHoffman Estates, IL, United States

Consumers Cutback this Holiday Season - America's tight credit market, the mortgage crisis, fluctuating gas prices, low consumer confidence, and a high jobless rate are all pointing to a not-so-merry Christmas for the country's retailers. About 35 percent of US consumers say that they'll spend less in the 2008 holiday season than last year, according to Nielsen. About half expect to spend the same amount, and only 6 percent say that they'll spend more. Of those who intend to spend about the same, half say that they'll make purchases at grocery stores, mass merchandisers, and supercenters.

Wal-Mart Wants Customers to Bag Plastic - Wal-Mart, the world's number one retailer, plans to reduce its global plastic shopping bag waste an average of 33 percent per store in the next five years, which it projects will eliminate more than 135 million pounds of plastic waste globally by the end of 2013. Wal-Mart says that it'll reach its goal by reducing the number of bags given to customers, encouraging the use of reusable bags, and continuing to give customers the ability to recycle the bags at its stores.

Help Not Wanted by Many Retailers this Holiday Season - US workers looking for temporary holiday employment in 2008 will face the toughest job market in 17 years, according to Manpower. Of wholesale and retail employers, 13 percent expect to hire fewer people in fourth quarter 2008, the largest rate of decline since fall 1991, when 10 percent of retailers said that they'd hire fewer workers for the holiday rush. Some 52 percent expect to hire the same number; 29 percent will hire more in November and December 2008 compared to the prior year's season.