By M.S. ENKOJI, Sacramento Bee

Restaurants with themes -- particularly those with celebrity names -- face particular challenges, which makes them vulnerable and often short-lived, say restaurant experts.

"Before you've even opened, all these odds are stacked against you," said James Sinclair, a principal with OnSite Consulting in Los Angeles, which specializes in advising insolvent and underperforming restaurants.

Hooters managers scrutinize everything from employees' hair and fingernails to their skimpy uniforms, and require them to make unpaid promotional appearances, a class action suit filed on behalf of 1,000 California restaurant workers claims.

The days of browsing in the Apple Store at the mall, then dashing home to buy that iTouch online at Amazon.com -- just to save the $25 or so in sales tax -- could be coming to an end.

Most Californians probably don't know they're supposed to keep track of all those online or catalog purchases and declare them on their state income tax returns.

For some shoppers, when they buy their coffee, a bottle of honey and or that Mexican woodcarving, a "fair trade" label on it is just as important as the taste or the look or the cost.

Yet even as awareness grows, fair trade is ginning up controversy because the term is difficult to define -- unlike, say, setting safe lead-paint levels for toys.

A lawsuit that could expand California wine sales to out-of-state consumers is deep in a Texas legal battle that could push into the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Sacramento, Calif.-based Specialty Wine Retailers Association is behind a lawsuit that is attempting to overturn a Texas ban on out-of-state retail wine sales to residents.

Home Depot, the big-box hardware store, is taking a hard look at those acres of blacktop surrounding their stores -- and seeing dollar signs.

Looking for ways to squeeze revenue out of the company's portfolio of properties, the real-estate division found that a quarter of the company's stores -- about 500 -- could support an acre-sized business in the parking lot.

It's time to wrap up that online shopping if you're hoping your purchases arrive in time for Christmas.

Deadlines set by many online retailers are expiring this week and a sizable chunk have set Friday as your last shot, according to a survey of retailers for Shop.org.

Before every department store issued its own credit card and before everyone's wallet carried plastic, there was another way to get something you couldn't quite afford at the moment: layaway.

Worldwide retail losses from crime rose nearly 6 percent from last year to $115 billion -- up 8 percent in the United States to $46 billion -- according to a new study.

The Grinch who stole the holiday season last year is still lurking around the cash register this season. The difference: This time retailers are wide awake and waiting for him.

Last year, they were blindsided by a 3.4-percent drop in sales. Today, they are heading into the holiday season with much leaner levels of inventory, so they don't get stuck with piles of unsold product.