Retail

It seemed like a typical dinner party for the well-heeled set: eight women, some dressed in stilettos and skinny jeans, gabbing over glasses of wine and endive spears with goat cheese at a lavish Hollywood Hills home. But amid the Kate Middleton pregnancy chatter and a debate on the best mascara brands, the conversation turned to mobile app strategies and the latest tech companies to score millions of dollars in venture capital funding. Not too long ago, such meet-ups among tech-savvy women - or men, for that matter - were a rarity in Los Angeles.

For a while, J.C. Penney and Best Buy seemed to be doppelgangers. The two retailers struggled with intensifying competition after years of comfortable stagnation. Beset by Wall Street skepticism and shaky consumer loyalty, each made sweeping attempts at a turnaround. Both removed their controversial chief executives. But as the companies prepare to reveal first-quarter earnings this month, their roads may be diverging: Best Buy's results are expected to show a continuing recovery while J.C. Penney's are forecast to be dismal.

WASHINGTON - The Senate gave strong bipartisan approval to landmark legislation that could largely lead to the end of the nation's decades-long Internet sales tax holiday. Now the issue shifts to the more skeptical, Republican-controlled House, where the debate will revolve around one fundamental question: Does helping governments collect an existing and owed tax constitute a tax increase? The Marketplace Fairness Act, approved 69-27 Monday by the Senate, gives states the authority to require larger online retailers with no physical presence in those states to collect sales taxes that residents already are obligated to pay. Many states, including California, are expected to jump at the chance to start collecting an estimated $23 billion in total sales tax revenue that is lost to online, catalog and other so-called remote sales each year.

Re "Web isn't a duty-free zone," Editorial, April 26 I'm the owner of a small e-commerce site that will be affected by the proposed law to make online retailers with at least $1 million in sales collect sales taxes from customers in states that have them. My company is located in California, employs Californians and collects sales tax for shipments to California residents. We have no presence elsewhere. It's unreasonable to think that we should be collecting taxes from customers in other states.

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote next month on a bill that could require online retailers to collect sales taxes from customers in every state that imposes them. The measure has been bashed by opponents as a tax increase that would cripple small Web businesses. It's not, and it won't. Instead, the Marketplace Fairness Act would eliminate an outdated restriction that favors those who can shop online over those who can't or won't. That's reason enough for it to become law. For much of the last two decades, Internet retailers collected sales taxes only from customers in the states where they were headquartered or had employees.

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti has amended two years of financial disclosure statements to belatedly report his ownership interest in a Beverly Hills property linked to an oil drilling operation. Garcetti, who has the Sierra Club's backing in his race against Wendy Greuel, signed a 20-year lease in the late 1990s that gave Venoco Inc. the right to drill under the retail property from the company's oil wells at nearby Beverly Hills High School. However, the city councilman from Silver Lake failed to report in his 2010 and 2011 disclosure filings that he co-owned the Wilshire Boulevard property, which houses a hair salon.

Downtown Los Angeles isn't the most hospitable place for dandies. The knot of business towers and lofts, saturated with mass-market or Santee Alley-style emporiums, is a wasteland for upscale retail. "It's criminal," sniffed Matthew Allnatt of the absence of a chic men's store in the area. He would know. Allnatt is the impeccably dressed chief operating officer at the Jonathan Club, an elite high-society hub that has been downtown for 118 years. Some of Los Angeles' most influential residents are members.

At a busy but nondescript intersection in Pacoima, a real estate developer is trying to help revive the San Fernando Valley neighborhood with an open-air market and retail complex aimed at small entrepreneurs. The complex on Van Nuys Boulevard at San Fernando Road will be called Zocalito of Pacoima, said developer Cary J. Lefton, chief executive of Sherman Oaks developer Agora Realty & Management Inc. Zocalito will have walkways and plazas similar to small towns in Mexico when it opens in the fall.

WASHINGTON -- Consumers cut back on their shopping in March, causing retail sales to contract for the second time in three months, the Commerce Department said Friday. Retail sales fell 0.4% in March compared to the previous month, the biggest drop since June. Economists had expected sales to be flat. The falloff was led by declines in spending at gas stations, department stores and at electronics and appliance retailers. Auto sales, which have been boosting retail figures, also declined in March.

Consumers shopping during a chilly March gave retail sales for the month a half-hearted push, with spending weighed down by the bitter weather, ongoing economic strains and an earlier Easter that shaved off a full selling day. "The deck was stacked against both retailers and consumers alike," said Ken Perkins, who puts out sales data through Retail Metrics Inc. Sales at stores open at least a year rose 1.5% in March, in line with expectations but...