Retailers use discounts to lure shoppers

All signs point to a successful holiday shopping season: falling gas prices, soaring stock market and unemployment at a six-year-low. Yet retailers are fighting to get shoppers into stores.

Why? Five years into the economic recovery, most Americans still are struggling.

Americans are paying more for food, health care and other costs. Wage growth has been stagnant. And when they do shop, Americans are looking for the deal.

Not that this holiday season is expected to be a dud. In fact, the National Retail Federation forecasts holiday sales will grow 4.1 percent to $616.9 billion. But retailers have already started making deep discounts to get shoppers into stores.

Firms, consumers spent little in October

WASHINGTON » U.S. consumers and businesses spent cautiously last month, a sign that strong growth during the spring and summer may decelerate in the final three months of the year. The figures released Wednesday were a mild disappointment after data the previous day showed the economy had expanded at the fastest pace in over a decade in the second and third quarters.

Consumers opened their wallets a bit in October, boosting their spending by a lukewarm 0.2 percent. That was only slightly better than September’s flat reading. Incomes rose just 0.2 percent, matching September’s increase.

Businesses also cut back on orders for industrial machinery, computers and other equipment, a sign that business investment spending may slow in the October-December quarter.

British retailers sell turkeys to Yankees

LONDON » Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday in Britain, but you might be forgiven for being fooled these days.

There are so many Americans in Britain that dozens of businesses have started selling the goods they need to celebrate. About 200,000 U.K. residents were born in the U.S., according to census data. That’s 26 percent more than in 2001. And because there’s no other holiday quite like Thanksgiving, businesses are finding ways to get in on the celebrations with turkey and trimmings for sale.

Feds threaten to fine air bag maker

DETROIT » A dispute between U.S. safety regulators and air bag maker Takata Corp. escalated Wednesday when the government threatened fines and legal action if the company fails to admit that driver’s air bag inflators are defective and to agree to a nationwide recall.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gave the Japanese company until Tuesday to file paperwork declaring a defect and expand the recall from high-humidity states to the full nation. The letter is the first step in a legal process to compel a nationwide recall.

ON THE MOVE

The Queen’s Health Systems has announced:

>> Keala Peters as director of strategic marketing. She has extensive health care and brand management experience, including as vice president of marketing and communications at Hawaii Pacific Health and as regional marketing manager at Nike.

>> Tim Pfingsten as director of organizational development and recruitment. He was previously at Bank of Hawaii as a corporate trainer in leadership and employee development, and as project manager of the enterprise content management program and talent management system.

Title Guaranty has hired Ka‘ili Trask O’Connell as vice president of sales and marketing at Title Guaranty of Hawaii. She has 25 years of management, communications, sales and marketing experience, including serving as director of development at Mid-Pacific Institute.