Rising above the recession

After retailers boxed up the holiday decorations and refreshed their store shelves with merchandise for the new year, they all faced the same question: what's the outlook for 2010? Many signs point to gradual recovery. The National Retail Foundation is forecasting modest improvement from last year, though nowhere close to the 5 percent to 6 percent sales growth during the boom years before the recession. "There's some optimism coming out of the fourth quarter (2009) results," said Greg Palme, Orange County retail specialist for Deloitte.
Here's a look ahead at the issues retailers are facing:

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