Retail

Retail giant Walmart is faced with the rising cost of raw materials, labor, trucking and the possibility of a trade war. All of that means consumers may soon see price hikes. If Walmart takes the leap, other retailers are likely to follow. Click the audio player above to hear the full story. 

Major department stores report their earnings this week, starting with Macy’s on Wednesday, followed by Nordstrom and J.C. Penney on Thursday. After a retail slump and slide over many quarters, Americans are coming back to shopping, and the numbers show stores are enjoying the trend. Click the audio player above to hear the full story. 

Brick-and-mortar stores might not be dead just yet.

Brookstone, the specialty retailer that sells eye masks, massage chairs and other gadgets, filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time Thursday. The company says it’s going to shut down its roughly 100 mall-based stores. They’ve become less of an attraction as more shopping moves online. The company’s 35 airport-based stores are doing much better. […]

On Wednesday, the Trump administration unveiled a proposal for even higher tariffs on many consumer goods imported from China. We went to a shopping center in Austin, Texas, to find out what buyers of those goods thought about the plan. Click the audio player above to hear the full story. 

When managing a shopping center, "every day is a fresh opportunity for creative problem solving."

This post was updated on July 27 at 7:54 a.m. CT. The Commerce Department has released second-quarter gross domestic product numbers this morning, showing that the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 4.1 percent — the fastest pace since 2014. That figure was driven by exporters rushing to get products delivered ahead of […]