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Home Depot said Tuesday it's looking to fill nationwide more than 80,000 positions for spring. Spring is the busiest season for the Atlanta-based home improvement giant as consumers focus on sprucing up their homes and lawns as temperatures turn warm. Available positions range from sales and cashiers to operations and online order fulfillment, the company said. Jobs include both permanent part-time and seasonal positions. 

Yahoo is casting off its e-commerce business, including Yahoo Stores, later this year when it spins off its Yahoo Small Business (YSB) unit. YSB will move over to a new public company, currently referred to as "SpinCo," along with Yahoo's approximately 384 million shares of Alibaba. Amer Akhtar, head of YSB, announced the news on the unit's blog. "With this new opportunity, we can invest even more in our platform and chart our own course," he said. However, Yahoo had just launched a "next generation" Yahoo Stores platform in August under Akhtar's predecessor, Amit Kumar.

Retailers’ anxiety levels are rising as gridlock grinds on with contract negotiations between West Coast dockworkers and port terminal operators. It's been a long nine months for those dealing directly, or indirectly, with the lack of a West Coast port contract, and after a temporary shutdown over the weekend, retail lobby groups and consultants are assigning potential costs to the issue. According to a Kurt Salmon analysis, congestion at West Coast ports could cost retailers as much as $7 billion this year.

It was an ordinary Wednesday for Audrey Shepps Mark in Raleigh, N.C. She was shopping at Target. In the midst of buying some headbands and a ham, according to Audrey, she had her heart warmed. It turned out that a young teenage boy had stopped by in search of a clip-on tie. He was making a pit stop before heading to a job interview. Only one problem: Target doesn't sell clip-on ties; the store only sells regular ties. A Target team member began to assist the young man. Audrey watched as the situation unfolded.

Michael Kors, the accessible luxury retailer best known for its leather handbags, delivered the kind of earnings report Thursday that many retailers would consider the stuff of dreams: revenue soared nearly 30 percent and profit rocketed 24 percent in the most recent quarter. Sales at stores open more than a year increased 8.6 percent, and online sales rose 76 percent. However, investors looking toward the future are unimpressed, sending the company's stock down nearly 4 percent in morning trading. Kors went public in December 2011, and it was on a rocket ride from the start. 

In the fashion business, it seems, everybody wants to be Ralph Lauren. The company epitomizes the so-called aspirational lifestyle brand, able to book huge sales at premium prices for everything from clothing to furniture to dinnerware. Kate Spade, another designer-inspired company, dreamed of following that path. In 2008, it recruited Craig Leavitt, a Ralph Lauren executive, as its CEO. But while shoppers continue to fawn over its colorful totes, satchels and clutches — sales were up more than 40 percent in 2014 — the company is learning that creating a buzzy lifestyle brand is more difficult than it seems. 

When Paula Schneider took the helm at American Apparel's sprawling factory and offices in Los Angeles last month, she found more than 3,000 cutters, sewers and designers working up a storm — but just one planner coordinating it all. It was symbolic, the brand's new chief executive said, of the frenzied manner in which the company had been run under its founder, Dov Charney, fired last year because of accusations of sexual harassment and personal misconduct.

Gap launched a new digital marketing push on Thursday to promote its spring season. The #SpringIsWeird campaign included an Instagram "micro-series" and the creation of Tinder profiles, advertising that the retailer is marking down denim by 30 percent, according to Adweek. But soon after the news published about the Tinder element of the campaign, the dating app decided to shut it down.

As the U.S. Postal Service increases efforts to take business away from UPS and FedEx, UPS is asking the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) to require USPS to be more forthcoming with information about its competitive products. In a filing on Monday, UPS said there were serious, deeply embedded problems with the manner in which the Postal Service is accounting for the costs of its competitive products business. "These problems prevent the Commission, the public, and indeed likely the Postal Service itself from knowing the true costs associated with this business," the shipping carrier stated in its filing.

Electronics retailer RadioShack Corp filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection on Thursday and said it had a deal in place to sell as many as 2,400 stores to an affiliate of hedge fund Standard General, its lender and largest shareholder. Wireless company Sprint Corp would operate as many as 1,750 of those stores under an agreement with Standard General, Sprint said separately. RadioShack's bankruptcy, which has been expected for months, follows 11 consecutive unprofitable quarters as the company has failed to transform itself into a destination for mobile phone buyers.