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Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD), a retailer whose competitive colleagues include Target (NYSE: TGT), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), wants to improve its brand equity and find a new path to growth. As such, it's willing to employ all kinds of initiatives, especially ones that will form a nice image with the consumer during this dreadful economic contraction.

According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Sears is trying out a program that offers protection against the risk of investing in an expensive appliance during a time when job security is not as secure as it used to be.

The program will run for a specified time period beginning next week, and the basic gist is this: buy an appliance priced $399 or higher on a Sears credit card and, and if you lose your job, Sears will credit one twelfth of the cost every month. Still no job after one year? Keep the appliance, your debt will be forgiven.

Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), the electronics mecca that competes with retailers such as Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Target (NYSE: TGT), Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD), and GameStop (NYSE: GME), will be issuing earnings for the first fiscal quarter on Tuesday, June 16. According to this source, Best Buy will see a decline in net income. Analysts believe that the retailer will do $0.34 per share, which represents a drop of about 20%.

But, according to that same source, Best Buy has beaten the analysts at their game in the last two quarters. If you ask me, I think the company has a good chance of beating the forecast yet again. With all the euphoria in the equities market as of late, and with all the talk about the recession possibly coming to an end late this year, I feel that consumers must have been in a better mood in the most recent quarter. And one would assume a big name like Best Buy would get its share of the traffic.

Last time I covered Talbots (NYSE: TLB), I was very bearish. I didn't like the stock's prospects. Since then, it's been up. The retailer, which counts Macy's (NYSE: M) and Ann Taylor (NYSE: ANN) as colleagues, has also seen its stock nearly double since the beginning of the year. But the company is still struggling, as the numbers from the fiscal first quarter clearly show. What am I missing?

Revenues from continuing operations declined 26%. The net loss on an adjusted basis was 23 cents per share. That was worse than last year's results for the similar quarter. Much worse. There was a profit of 42 cents per share at that time. The most dismal aspect of the current quarter can be found in the same-store sales statistic. Comps were simply massacred. They plummeted almost 27%! What a bloodbath.

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.

Hedge fund magnate Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital recently had his bid to seat five new directors on the board of Target (NYS: TGT) soundly rejected by shareholders. Management has fought Ackman tooth and nail. Ackman's strategy has been fairly simple. He believes Target should sell off key real estate assets with lease backs for his stores. He also believes Target should, as much as possible, get out of the credit card business by letting a specialist company run that practice. The board has told Big Bill to just buzz off. We are seeing a current Piqqem Sentiment of Target as Neutral with actually not a ton of interest, implying no one sees a big move in the stock coming.

Dollar Tree (NASDAQ: DLTR) saw a nice increase in its bottom-line profit. The retailer, which reported earnings for the first quarter earlier this week, said it made 66 cents per share, good for an increase of more than 37%. Revenues increased 14%, and same-store sales went up a whopping 9%. So many retailers would absolutely kill to have that same-store number.

It's no secret why Dollar Tree is thriving. Bad economy plus items-that-sell-for-a-dollar-each equals retail success. Brand equity is important. So is convenience. But a cheap price point oftentimes trumps all.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Aeropostale Inc. (NYSE: ARO) beat profit expectations as revenue and same-store sales both increased.
• Aruba Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: ARUN) received an analyst's upgrade following its Q3 report.
• Buckle Inc. (NYSE: BKE) reported better-than-expected Q1 expectations as revenue surged.
• Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) higher Q2 earnings beat expectations and sent shares upward.
• Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) reported better-than-expected Q3 earnings, sending shares higher.

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.

The cheap chic retailer beat the Street handily in its latest earnings numbers. That's no surprise, considering the dismal performance of Target (NYSE: TGT) as compared to peers over the past year. The drugstore that stocks everything nearly destroyed a hedge fund run by legendary investor Bill Ackman designed solely to bet on Target shares. I think Target's rebirth may not be long-lived. Piqqem Sentiment for Target is neutral. Investors may be giddy today but they should consider the obstacles to a full-blown revival.

Here's why. The company's growth in groceries just means more reliance in a notoriously low-margin and fickle consumer environment where they compete with brutal sharks such as Costco and Wal-Mart. Getting into the food biz is nothing to crow about, but that's just what the Target CEO Greg Steinhafel did on the conference call when he said the chain was seeing real gains in food shopping at Target stores.

Kohl's Corporation (NYSE: KSS) reported a not-so-impressive first quarter. It wasn't the worst I've ever seen, but I've seen better, certainly. Net sales were basically flat, and earnings per share dropped four pennies to $0.45.

Yes, that number did beat estimates by the proverbial penny, but the big problem I have with the quarter is the same-store sales performance. Kohl's saw a decline of 4.2% in comps. What does that mean? It means the retailer needs to do a lot of work in terms of attracting customers to its stores. Yes, the recession is a huge problem, and people are turned off by the idea of spending a lot of money on anything. Still, Kohl's must do a better job when it comes to getting people through its doors.

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), a retailer that competes with companies such as Target (NYSE: TGT), Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD), and Costco (NASDAQ: COST), issued what I thought was a decent Q1 report. Sales may have been affected by currency effects, but overall, the giant chain seems to be holding up reasonably well.

Revenues dipped 0.6%. The company earned $0.77 per diluted share. No, the bottom line didn't do great in terms of earnings growth. Last year at this time, Wal-Mart made $0.76 per diluted share. That extra penny does not connotate excitement, I can tell you that. But shareholders can comfort themselves by the fact that Wal-Mart came in at the high end of its own guidance. Wall Street analysts pretty much agreed that the business would make about that much.

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.

Analyst upgrades:

• Citigroup upgraded Cooper Industries (NYSE: CBE) to Hold from Sell to reflect improving macro indicators and a belief negative earnings revisions are unlikely going forward. The firm raised its target price to $37 from $28.
  
• Royal Bank of Scotland upgraded Siemens (NYSE: SI) to Buy from Hold on expectations the company will benefit from an economic recovery.
  
• Banc of America/Merril upgraded State Street (NYSE: STT) to Buy from Neutral and raised their price target to $50 from $40 following stress test results that show the company does not need additional capital. The analyst said the news "clears one of the bars on capital concerns."
  
• Teradata (NYSE: TDC) was raised to Market Weight from Underweight at Thomas Weisel.
  
• Target (NYSE: TGT) was lifted to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
  
• Diageo (NYSE: DEO) was upgraded at UBS to Neutral from Sell.