Costco Wholesale Corp.

First, the good news: More than half of the nation’s leading supermarkets are making progress with increased sustainability in their seafood operations, according to results of Greenpeace’s latest seafood sustainability scorecard, “Carting Away the Oceans.”

As investors and owners strive to value retail centers, they can draw on a correlation between college education levels, vacancies and gross leaseable area to predict performance.

James D. Sinegal, chief executive of Issaquah, Wash.-based warehouse retailer Costco, is one one of the world’s best-performing CEOs, according to Brendan Wood International, a global intelligence-based advisory firm.

Global consumer spending appears to be on the rebound, driven by sales gains in China, India, the U.S. and Canada in April, another indication that the global economy may be stabilizing as consumer attitudes and confidence turn up.

Costco Wholesale Corp., Issaquah, Wash., will begin accepting food stamps in its two New York City locations as soon as it has completed the installation of the necessary technology for processing the payment cards, estimated for early summer 2009.

While big-box retailers BJ’s and Costco had a tough time in April as net and comparable-store sales tumbled during a time of economic recession and plummeting gasoline sales, Target managed to stem its recent sales declines and Wal-Mart actually saw higher sales during the month, driven by increased traffic and a strong showing in seasonal and discretionary items.

Among the companies represented on the 2009 U.S. Reputation Pulse, a yearly ranking and study put out by New York-based reputation consulting firm Reputation Institute, members of the grocery industry made a strong showing.

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