Dole Food Company has started the New Year with a new look for its website.

In what turned out to be one of the stranger holiday seasons in recent memory retailers fought through a range of unconventional headwinds to deliver an uneven performance.

It’s not the latest iPhone or the newest Tablet, but Staples is touting a breakthrough in binder design for the New Year.

Lowe’s Creative Ideas magazine is extending its reach into cyber territory to offer consumers home-improvement project ideas for the New Year.

The New Year is off to a busy start at BJ’s Wholesale Club. Amid ongoing speculation about the retailer being a potential takeover target, BJ’s on Wednesday announced the closure of five clubs, several senior level personnel changes and released its December sales a day earlier than normal.

With Target set to release December sales results this Thursday, the issue isn’t whether the company’s results will be in line with expectations but the degree by which they are likely to exceed same-store sales guidance in the low- to mid-single digit range.

That guidance was thought to be rather conservative at the time it was released in early December for a couple of reasons.

The National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association both issued statements supporting the final passage of a bipartisan agreement for extending critical individual and business taxes.

The National Retail Federation announced that it has urged the Senate to support legislation extending Bush era tax cuts that is scheduled for a procedural vote today, saying the measure would help preserve and create jobs.