Tis the season of gratitude, you know, and I wanted to take a minute to thank our marketplace

investors. That is a community of listeners who've gone above and beyond to support our work

and to ensure that trustworthy news and information is available to all. And in a year like this one,

that means a lot. Each and every investor matters and makes a real difference here at marketplace.

So on behalf of all of us, thank you.

Come on, everybody. Say it with me now. Retail. Retail. Retail. Retail. From American public media.

This is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, I'm Kai. Rizdana is Wednesday. Today is 16th day. I've no

member. Good as always to have you along, everybody. And hey, nice job, American consumers upon whom so

much in this economy depends. Nice job holding up your end of the retail equation.

We learned from the good people at the Commerce Department this morning that retail sales in this

economy were up 1.3% September to October. That is not inflation adjusted by the way.

So again, good job. And that is the macro picture. We're going to do a little digging though.

On one big retail brand in particular, we got targets, third quarter numbers this morning. And

they run well, a little bit counter to the overall message you have to say, sure. Yes, sales at the

big boxer were up 3%, but the company missed profit expectations. And it is warning of a soft holiday

season. So Marketplace is and Euler spent his day reading the target tea leaves for what they

can tell us about the retail economy heading into this all important holiday season.

Target's revenue grew by 3.4% from this time last year. Now, that's still growth just well below

expectations as the company's CEO Brian Cornell put it to reporters this morning.

In some ways, Target is a microcosm for what's happening in retail.

Neal Saunders is managing director of global data, a retail research firm.

...