Retail Giant Wal-mart has gone back to basics so to speak, Wal-Mart Stores Inc is launching a campaign early next month called “It’s. Back,” It’s their way of telling customer that despite its recent efforts of removing certain items in what can only be described as a floored renovation effort. From early May Wal-Mart will herald the return of items such as fishing tackle, fabric items and other so called “heritage” items. The store removed these items from their outlets in a failed attempt of sprucing up the store’s image with upmarket shoppers and the general perception of the cliental it targets.

Market Analysts say Consumer spending is up due to increasing Gasoline prices. Retail sales increased significantly by 0.4% last month making it the ninth consecutive gain in a row. On the other hand, however it is worth noting that Auto sales are on the decline due to climbing Oil prices and other factors like cost of living and so forth. Economists are predicting that a payroll tax cut and job growth will boost consumer sales for the rest of the year. Analysts are also concerned. However, that spike’s in energy prices may not leave shoppers with as much to spend as usual.

Online shoppers are rejoicing when it comes to customer service, it seems that online retailer Amazon has come out trumps when it comes to servicing its customers. Whether it be via Twitter, Facebook, their corporate websites, or the phone support or in person, they ranked 1-2-3 in customer interaction, according to a new research report published by market researcher Temkin Group. Temkin Experience Ratings are based on over 6,000 U.S. consumers who had recent interactions with over 143 major U.S. companies in a dozen industries. Most companies were shocked and left looking rather embarrassed when they ranked in the lower 16% ratings where the service was deemed “adequate” the 2011 survey revealed.

While it’s been a long time since the devastating quake rocked Haiti, it was just announced that up to 20,000 jobs will be created at new industrial park in Haiti. It comes from a garment giant based in Korea that plans on building what will be the country’s first fabric mill. It is expected to not only bring some form of stability to the Haiti people, but also bring some economic certainty to the volatile region where unemployment is devastatingly high. The Company which is a major supplier to U.S. retailer’s Target, Wal-Mart, Kohl’s and GAP, is expanding its garment-making operations to Haiti as the anchor tenant in a new 617-acre industrial park being created in the country’s underdeveloped northern region. For the first time, Haiti’s 2 million-a-week T-shirt-stitching industry will also include the country’s one and only knit and dyeing mill with Sae-A pumping 6,000 tons of ground water a day for its huge export operations.

In some shocking news RIM has been the biggest loser as the Google Android continues its unprecedented surge to the top of the smartphone market, according to Comscore’s latest numbers. In the three-month period during November 2010 and February 2011, Comscore showed the Google Android jumping a significant 7 percentage points from 26% to a massive 33% of the U.S. smartphone market. There is a simple reason behind the Google Android’s recent success. Major Hardware makers have banked their high-end device strategically on Google’s smartphone platform, and are kicking out regular and exciting, appealing devices nearly every week. RIM has not introduced a significant new handset since August 2010, when it announced the Torch.

The Smart phone market is expecting considerable growth this year as shipments surged to almost 50%, however there has been some warning signs that the slowdown from the 74% growth rate the industry enjoyed in 2010. Google’s Android smart phone is highly tipped to become the new standard operating system according to a technology market research firm said overnight. International Data Corp was quoted saying that the smartphone vendors are expecting to ship more than 450 million smartphones in 2011 compared to 303.4 million last year making it a solid growth that they expect to continue for some time to come.

Car makers around the world are bracing for what could be the biggest
parts shortage the industry has ever seen, already Ford has been
forced to cut production due to supply orders unable to be met. Toyota
is another industry giant who has suffered huge reductions in car
productions as the ripple effect by the tsunami that hit Japan. It is
140,000 vehicles short on its usual production for the year. The parts
shortage is expected to continue indefinitely as most of the building
where the parts are produced were totally wiped out by the tsunami. It
is indeed dark times for the global automotive industry.