Consumers are finally spending more, with September posting the first gain in more than a year. The International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) found that retail sales inched 0.1% higher last month. It doesn't seem like much, but a gain when you anticipate a fall is good news magnified. But, it came at the expense of great deals and other tools to entice somewhat hesitant customers into stores.

Kohl's (NYSE: KSS) and Limited Brands (NYSE: LTD) reported sales increases in September for stores open more than a year. J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP), Macy's (NYSE: M) and Target (NYSE: TGT) posted declines, but they were better than expected. Delayed school openings thanks to a late Labor Day helped push to September sales that might have occurred in August otherwise.

Of course, all eyes are on the coming holiday season. The National Retail Federation forecasts U.S. consumer spending of $437.6 billion – up only slightly from $433.7 billion four years ago. So, we still have a lot of ground to make up before we can celebrate a recovery. As long as the situation is staying steady, though, we'll at least have a solid starting point.

MasterCard Advisors (NYSE: MA) service SpendingPulse says luxury and electronics sales headed upward last month, in a pleasant deviation from what became the norm all too long ago. A few other product categories posted gains as well – showing stability, if not a recovery. But, at this stage of the game, we'll take what we can get, right?

Luxury sales, not including jewelry, gained 3.4% year-over-year – that's an increase of $891 million. Last September, luxury goods suffered a 9.4% decline. Yet, this category is still below its September 2005 level of $94 million. Jewelry sales gained 1.2% relative to last year, compared to a year-over-year decline of 5.8% a year ago. Compared to apparel sales, this is a profound turn. In September 2008, the clothing category was off 5.7%, and this September, it was down only 2.9%.

Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) wants to up the game a bit in the second half of 2009 as it seeks to increase its marketing and hopefully prop up sales. One area of focus for its marketing efforts for the remainder of 2009 will be on Target's in-store pharmacies.

Target will increase marketing as a percentage of sales for the last four months of 2009, sating that "For the year, our marketing plan is right on, but we've saved some money here in the front half for the express purpose of being able to invest it in the back half."

Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) has raised the ire of activist investor Bill Ackman a few times over the years, to little effect. Target, which owns roughly 85% of the real estate under its stores, owns more than just discount locations. It's estimated that Target's real estate holdings alone are worth $30 billion. That's on top of the $50+ billion it makes every fiscal year in revenue. Does Target's share price reflect that fact?

Last summer we lamented the price of gas. This year, however, there's at least one upside. Retail sales for June were up 0.6% - substantially better than the 0.4% anticipated – with the gas prices leading the charge. A slight tip in the brutalized auto manufacturer sector helped, as well. This was the largest retail sales increase in five months.

Gas stations benefited from the cost of fuel, adding a bit of pep to a beleaguered retail industry: sales were up 5% year over year, after doing the same in May. And, car dealers had their best month since January: the sales of cars and parts climbed 2.3%. Nonetheless, this corner of the retail world is still off 14.5% from last year. It may have helped last month, but we're still pretty far from a cure.

Since late last year, retail has been hurt as the recession dug in for the winter and stayed throughout the start of the 2009 summer. Although job loss data for May just in indicates a steep drop (leveling off perhaps?), consumers are still pinching pennies and keeping savings under the proverbial mattress. One of the continuing casualties -- Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT).

The second-largest discount retailer in the U.S. said that same-store sales for May came in at a -6.1% level -- worse than analysts had forecast. Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel indicated sales "were somewhat below our expectations." By comparison, average same-store sales from 32 retailers in May dropped 4.6%, putting Target at a worse-performing range than most.

Analyst upgrades:

• UBS upgraded Target (NYSE: TGT) to Buy from Neutral and raised its price target to $52 from $45 citing reduced inventories, some credit stability, and an improved back-to-school period.
• Credit Suisse said concerns regarding Safeway's (NYSE: SWY) price position are overblown and that earnings risk is limited. The firm upgraded shares to Outperform from Neutral and raised the target price to $25 from $22.
• Oppenheimer upgraded Canadian Solar (NASDAQ: CSIQ) to Outperform from Perform as it believes the story is underappreciated following the recent sector rally. The firm has a $14 price target on the stock.
• CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) was upgraded to buy from Neutral at Goldman.
• Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
• Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at FTN Equity.

Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) is looking at every possible way to increase sales and discount store market share this year. Part of that plan will soon be to sell fresh food and products in up to 100 of its normal merchandise stores to supplant sales at its merchandise/grocery SuperTarget locations that already exist.

Longtime Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) supporter and share activist Bill Ackman has finally had enough. Not content with Target's board and wishful thinking that the retailer's fortunes will turn around any time soon, Ackman wants to replace at least four board members on Target's board. Ackman says his picks have the needed expertise in retail, credit card operations and real estate.

Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) has woken up and realized that in this day and age, marketing, colors, positioning and everything else comes second hat when discount retail is involved. Larger competitor Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has taken the lion's share of retail dollars in the last three quarters based on its "Save Money. Live Better" marketing slogan and mode of operation. When pennies are to be pinched, pricing is all that matters.

In what is becoming standard practice in retail, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) reported a same-store sales increase of 2.1% in January while competitor Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) experienced a same-store sales decline of 1.6% from the year-ago period. Surprising? Not at all.

As the economic stimulus bill hangs around Capitol Hill and more and more Americans are becoming unemployed, Wal-Mart is continuing to experience an influx of business that's coming in from the competition. This will continue throughout 2009. Even though Wal-Mart won't be giving monthly same-store sales forecasts for the time being, the retailer will be one of the very few shining lights in retail this year.

Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) has indicated that it will slice 9% of its headquarters staff as the retailer continues to weather the economic downturn and uncertainty in 2009's performance. This week has seen companies from every industry cuts tens of thousands of jobs. In what is starting to infiltrate the headquarters of many companies, it's not just for store workers or front-line folks any longer.

Target also said it would cut back on new store openings this year in addition to closing down a distribution center for an unspecified time. At its headquarters in Minnesota, 600 positions will be let go and the company will cancel plans to hire for an additional 40 positions. In Arkansas -- just down the street from the headquarters of rival Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), Target will close a distribution center and put another 500 people out of work.

Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) reported what many retail industry analysts were expecting regarding December sales (hint: they went down from the prior year).

The second-largest discount retailer in the U.S. indicated that its December same-store sales dipped down 4.1% in December, even though that level was better than expected. The previous expectation was for Target to see a 9.1% drop in same-store sales. In other words, the retailer did twice as good as expected.

Does this mean the languishing retail landscape is recovering? Not so fast -- a surge in the last two weeks of December was the reason Target gave for doing better than predicted in December. Most likely, gift-buying procrastinators saved Target from seeing a nearly double-digit same-store sales drop.

Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel indicated that the retailer dropped prices in December to gain market share. It still was not enough to stop the customer buying defections to competitor Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) which continued to see growth in December when just about all other retailers saw shrinkage.

Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) bucked the "retailers in the dump" news this past weekend by opening up 45 new stores across the U.S., including its first two stores in the state of Alaska. The openings also included two newer prototype stores in Minnesota. As luck would have it, one of these store openings was located where I live. And it opened less than one-half mile away from an existing Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) Supercenter.

From conversations I've heard all summer, almost everyone looked forward to the new Target opening in my area. The feeling was that most of these folks wanted a competitor to Wal-Mart, even if it didn't mean lower prices. Perhaps they looked forward to the Target shopping experience instead of the Wal-Mart shopping experience?

The two Minnesota store openings included a new general merchandise prototype location as well as a new SuperTarget prototype location. Both include more space for food and electronics (two staple merchandising segments) and both were certified under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. Whether Target's newer stores will market this fact to the eco-conscious American shopper is unknown. The new store designs will be unveiled at more than 100 new locations in 2009, according to the company.

Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) has started selling a Blu-ray disc player for what is probably the lowest retail price you can find one at: $229. I've said many times in the past that this new format will not catch on with consumers until retail prices routinely get to less than $200, so this new price from Target is nearing that mark. Of course, panicked U.S. consumers probably won't be buying any Blu-ray players the remainder of this year as they watch what wealth they did have evaporate in the markets.

The Target model is an Olevia brand player (yes, that's an off-brand), which marks a $70 reduction from a recent Sony Blu-ray player that is being sold alongside the Olevia player for $299. Still, unless there is some breakthrough difference that Blu-ray manufacturers and retailers can market correctly, most U.S. consumers will stay with their progressive-scan DVD players that sell for $75 or less and have a perfectly fine picture (although not true high-definition).

So, perhaps sometime in late 2009 -- roughly a year from now -- the market will see $99 Blu-ray players and regular consumers may finally feel the urge to buy one and start re-purchasing their movie libraries in yet another format. That is, until super-duper, high-fidelity Purple-ray players hit the market sometime in 2014 and the cycle repeats yet again. Perhaps by then, we'll all be out of this economic funk and won't be protecting our cash hoards, however little they may be by then.