My finance view

Home improvement is one of the fastest-growing segments of e-commerce. But the consequences of a bad decision when it comes to finding a contractor or remodeling products online are far worse than buying the wrong paperback.

What if those rave reviews you read about a contractor are ringers posted by his daughter — or if your supposedly in-stock sink order doesn’t ship for two weeks, throwing off your entire work schedule?

Follow these tips to avoid glitches and get the most for your money.

To find a contractor: Sites that are driven by consumer ratings are your best bet. That’s because you get to see what as many as hundreds of prior customers say about all the pros in your area.

Just watch for sites with anonymous postings and ads that appear in search results that look like positive ratings. In the New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles metro areas, or a few counties in New York, Connecticut, and Florida, check out Franklin-Report.com, which compiles user comments into Zagat-like ratings.

Beyond those regions, a good alternative is Angieslist.com, which charges $5 a month, and uses the credit card info to prevent anyone from creating more than one login in order to post multiple revews.

To vet a contractor: The next step is to talk to former clients and visit current and completed job sites. Sadly, there are no e-ternatives to doing this in person.

But there is one key step you can do online: a background check high quality business cards. Get a report about a contractor’s licensing, bonding, insurance, bankruptcy, civil judgments, criminal background, liens, and credit rating for $13 at contractorcheck.com, run by the credit bureau Experian.

To order supplies

Sites run by home-improvement chains (such as HomeDepot.com and Lowes.com), boutique manufacturers (BeadBoard.com, Horizon-Shutters.com), and specialty e-tailers (eFaucets.com, TileShop.com) offer bigger selections than local retailers do. But the main attraction is price: Discounts of 10% to 50% aren’t uncommon.

Just keep in mind that if something goes wrong, those savings could turn into cost overruns. As with any online purchase, you run the risk of shipping damage or late deliveries, which can derail a project with multiple tradesmen working around one another’s schedules.

So order online only if your contractor okays it and provides technical specs; you’re far enough ahead of the installation date to make other arrangements if there’s a problem; the site is an authorized dealer for the brands you’re buying; and if possible, you’ve seen the product firsthand.

Otherwise, buy locally. It’ll be easier to get matching items quickly if needed, and you’ll avoid having to deal with a faraway call center if a problem arises.  

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Kinetic Concepts Inc. was the only local stock to have a positive day on the market Friday.

The company’s stock closed at $37.04, up 0.14 percent from the end-of-day trading on Aug. 6.

Fifteen local stocks declined in value at the close of trading on Thursday, compared to Aug. 5.

After a triple-digit drop early in the day as the market reacted to a disappointing jobs report, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered late in the session to close down just 21.42 points, or 0.2 percent, at 10,653.

Friday’s closing tally:

• Abraxas Petroleum Corp.’s (NASDAQ: AXAS) — $2.84, down 2.07 percent.

• Alamo Group Inc.’s (NYSE: ALG) — $24.33, down 0.69 percent.

• CC Media Holdings’ (Pink Sheets: CCMO) — $6.5, down 2.99 percent.

• Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc.’s (NYSE: CFR) — $54.33, down 1.88 percent.

• GlobalSCAPE Inc.’s (AMEX: GSB) — $2.81, down 1.40 percent.

• Harte-Hanks Inc.’s (NYSE: HHS) — $10.90, down 1.54 percent.

• Kinetic Concepts Inc.’s (NYSE: KCI) — $37.04, up 0.14 percent.

• NuStar Energy LP’s (NYSE: NS) — $59.77, down 0.25 percent.

• NuStar GP Holdings LLC’s (NYSE: NSH) — $30.42, down 1.07 percent.

• Pioneer Drilling Co.’s (AMEX: PDC) — $6.68, down 1.47 percent.

• Rackspace Hosting’s (NYSE: RAX) — $19.31, down 1.48 percent.

• Rush Enterprises’ (NASDAQ: RUSHA) — Class A stock closed at $14.56, down 0.88 percent.

• Rush Enterprises’ (NASDAQ: RUSHB) — Class B stock closed at $13.02, down 0.08 percent.

• Tesoro Corp.’s (NYSE: TSO) — $12.77, down 0.47 percent.

• U.S. Global Investors’ (NASDAQ: GROW) — $5.98, down 2.13 percent.

• Valero Energy Corp.’s (NYSE: VLO) — $18.06, down 1.37 percent.

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IPhone seekers hoping to avoid days-long lines thought they’d have an ace in the hole: retail outlets other than Apple’s stores. Apple partner AT&T warned potential buyers that it wouldn’t have inventory for walk-in buyers until next week, but Wal-Mart, Best Buy and RadioShack all announced plans to have "limited" supplies available Thursday for shoppers who didn’t pre-order the iPhone 4.

That was the theory. The reality hasn’t played out so smoothly.

Wal-Marts around the country said that their iPhones were in short supply, and Twitter was ablaze with customers reporting from Wal-Mart stores that had just one or two of the devices in stock.

An Evansville, Ill., Wal-Mart said it had exactly one unreserved iPhone 4 available when it opened. But don’t race out the door: It’s already sold.

Only 1,500 of the 3,600 Wal-Mart stores in the United States are offering the phone on Thursday, according to company spokeswoman Ashley Hardie, though more stores will sell the phone after the launch day.

"They can’t get here soon enough!" Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien added.

A spot check of two Best Buys and multiple RadioShack stores in New York City found no phones available for customers who hadn’t claimed them in advance.

But a few pockets of inventory emerged: A Best Buy on 62nd Street had a stash of 16 GB iPhone 4s available for sale mid-afternoon. Store employees wouldn’t say how many were left.

"Inventory remains constrained, and it is expected that many of the iPhones that Best Buy receives will go first to customers who reserved one during presale," Best Buy (BBY, Fortune 500) warned Wednesday in a statement. The company said availability would vary store by store, and that customers should call before heading out to pick up a phone.

To prevent long lines at Apple and AT&T stores — the only places to get the iPhone on the first day of sale in past years — Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) delivered devices to Best Buy, RadioShack and Wal-Mart stores across the country. But the inventory was not enough to meet the wild demand for the phone.

One RadioShack on 23rd Street in Manhattan said Apple had given it just eight iPhones — total. They were all reserved for pre-orders, but the store said that it would make them available to walk-ins at noon if they weren’t yet claimed.

Another RadioShack, on 57th Street, went through its scant inventory so fast it wasn’t able to fulfill all of its pre-orders. One block away, a RadioShack store that didn’t accept pre-orders — it stuck with first-come, first-served — sold out fast amid hectic demand.

Best Buy, which planned to have very limited iPhone stocks on hand, had no one in line at its Fifth Avenue outpost right before its opening.

But that was for the best, since that store didn’t have a single iPhone 4 on hand for walk-in customers, according to a manager preparing for an early open. Customers who pre-ordered through Best Buy would be able to pick up their phones at scheduled appointment times throughout the morning, he said.

RadioShack (RSH, Fortune 500) did not immediately return requests for comment.

AT&T (T, Fortune 500) announced last week that it won’t start selling the iPhone 4 to walk-in buyers until June 29, and it stuck by that statement Thursday morning. Customers who turned up seeking one were set away.

Daniel Karbowitz, 32, lost his iPhone 3G last week and hoped to replace it with the latest model. When the AT&T store broke the bad news, Karbowitz set out for the nearby Apple store.

"I’m not optimistic," he said. "I hope I can get one today, but Apple likes keeping a scarce supply of their newest products."

Demand for Apple’s new phone was 10 times higher than it was for the previous version, the iPhone 3GS, according to AT&T. Apples said it sold 600,000 devices on the first day of pre-sales.

The unanticipated demand crashed AT&T’s servers, and a number of customers were unable to pre-order the iPhone 4 last week. AT&T stopped accepting pre-orders after just one day. It’s waiting for Apple to restock its inventory.

Meanwhile, the iPhone’s availability — or unavailability — at other retail outlets did nothing to quell demand at Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Thousands lined up at the store Thursday morning, with many saying they came because they heard the phones would be in short supply.

With a line still out the door, the Apple store on 67th Street in Manhattan ran out of inventory mid-afternoon for customers who didn’t pre-order. Just after 2 p.m., the store closed down its walk-in line. Managers said they would take stock of their remaining supplies and see if the could re-open the queue later Thursday.  

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Source: KV Pharmaceutical Co.

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With austerity the national mindset in this iffy economy, anything hip or trendy may seem extravagant.

Everyone must be too busy clipping sale coupons and saving soap slivers to have time for such frivolity, right? To the contrary, according to some investment experts who believe that hip can be a smart investor direction.

"People don’t feel flush right now so they need a reason to buy stuff," explained Marie Driscoll, retail analyst for Standard & Poor’s Corp. in New York.

The ability to keep up with often-fickle trends is a worthy skill that many companies have failed miserably to master. Those that have done it best often command top dollar for their shares, but their likelihood of continued success could make them worth their premium price.

One retailer that consistently attracts the hippest of young people — ranging in age from the teens to mid-20s — is Urban Outfitters Inc., according to Driscoll. Its ever-changing merchandise, ranging from fashion and furniture to electronics, is part of a strategy to transform casual shoppers into motivated buyers. Its innovative Anthropologie and Free People brands are growing faster than its regular Urban Outfitters stores.

"You go into one of its stores and it’s like a flea market or thrift market, the appeal being that you don’t know what you’re going to see," she explained, noting that even snowy weather didn’t dampen sales. "It has an ear to both guys and girls as target customers and knows how to change to keep up with those customers."

Stock of Urban Outfitters (URBN) is up 4 percent this year after last year’s dramatic 134 percent gain. It receives a consensus "buy" rating from the Wall Street analysts who track it, according to Thomson Reuters.

It is quite possible that when those young customers return home they relax by playing best-selling video game Guitar Hero, which lets them simulate playing the guitar across a variety of rock music songs. It is from Activision Blizzard Inc., the firm that resulted from the 2008 merger of Activision and Vivendi Games.

"Cool games that hardcore gamers like are still coming from the traditional players in this space," noted Toan Tran, technology analyst with Morningstar Inc. in Chicago.

The video game portfolio of Activision Blizzard includes Call of Duty, Tony Hawk and the role-playing game World of Warcraft. If you’re behind the times on those, you’ll surely recognize its Spider-Man and James Bond titles. The durability and worldwide appeal of its franchises, especially throughout Asia, position it for future growth, Tran believes.

The stock of Activision Blizzard (ATVI) is up 5 percent this year after last year’s 29 percent increase. Its consensus analyst rating is between "strong buy" and "buy."

For the modern crowd that expects the latest communication devices, Apple Inc no teletrack payday loans. is hotter than BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, believes Michael Lippert, portfolio manager of Baron iOpportunity Fund (BIOPX) in New York. Although outstanding for e-mail, the BlackBerry hasn’t connected with younger consumers, he said.

"Apple’s iPhone will gain even more market share when it moves to multiple carriers rather than just AT&T," predicted Lippert, who acknowledges BlackBerry’s competency but doesn’t believe the younger crowed is all that excited about it. "I feel that if you can walk into a Verizon store and get a BlackBerry or iPhone for the same price, why will anyone get anything other than an iPhone?"

Apple has remained a relevant company, said Lippert, who expects that its new iPad tablet computer will also be popular with the college-age crowd.

"There is no more hip company in technology than Apple," agreed Tran. "While it remains to be seen how big an impact the iPad will have on the market, I’m leaning toward the view that it will be another huge hit."

The stock of Apple (AAPL) is up 7 percent this year after last year’s 147 percent increase. Its consensus analyst rating is between "strong buy" and "buy."

Lippert’s $182 million Baron iOpportunity Fund is up 82 percent in value over the past 12 months and has a five-year annualized return of 8 percent. Besides Apple, another big holding is Google Inc. (GOOG).

"The YouTube service used by millions of people is one reason why Google is still hip and cool," said Lippert. "Other companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Hulu are at the epicenter of what’s considered cool, but unlike Google they aren’t public companies that you can invest in."

Engadget, a popular Web-based consumer electronics magazine based in Silicon Valley, is also considered hip these days, added Lippert. Not everyone may know that this weblog and podcast operation is owned by AOL Inc., now a stand-alone company after its divorce from Time Warner. Shares of AOL (AOL), up 9 percent this year, are a consensus "hold" among the analysts who track them.

Another Driscoll favorite is J. Crew Group Inc. (JCG), whose merchandise always has a fresh look and increasingly attracts shoppers from luxury designer stores, she said. Meanwhile, Tran admires Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) for its leadership in video games, with Asia the growth driver. Its Rock Band game competes with Activision Blizzard’s Guitar Hero.

Whether 2010 hipness leaders will continue into 2011 and beyond will be decided by their hip customers.

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Toyota president Akio Toyoda accepted on Thursday a formal invitation to testify at a hearing to be held next Wednesday.

The House Oversight Committee sent the invitation Thursday morning. Toyoda had initially said he would not appear before the committee but would instead send North America chief Yoshimi Inaba.

But late Thursday, Toyoda released a short statement: "I have received Congressman Towns’ invitation to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on February 24 and I accept. I look forward to speaking directly with Congress and the American people."

The invitation sent by Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., reads: "There appears to be growing public confusion regarding which vehicles may be affected and how people should respond. In short, the public is unsure as to what exactly the problem is, whether it is safe to drive their cars, or what they should do about it."

After Toyoda announced his acceptance, Towns released his own statement, with Ranking Member Darrell Issa, R-Calif,: "We are pleased Mr. Toyoda accepted the invitation to testify before the Committee. We believe his testimony will be helpful in understanding the actions Toyota is taking to ensure the safety of American drivers."

Earlier Thursday, the committee issued a subpoena for "all documents relating to Toyota motor vehicle safety and Toyota’s handling of alleged motor vehicle defects and related litigation" that are held by Toyota’s former U.S. counsel Dimitrios Biller.

Biller has claimed that he possesses documents that proved Toyota hid key findings of safety defects. Even before Thursday’s news, Toyota had filed an injunction to prevent Biller from making those documents public, but a Committee aide said the Committee’s subpoena overrides the state-level injunction.

"Mr. Biller is a former Toyota attorney who left the company in 2007," Toyota spokeswoman Cindy Knight said in an e-mailed statement. "He would have no knowledge about Toyota matters since that time and is not a reliable source of information."

Toyota will continue to fight Biller’s allegations, Knight said.

Mr. Toyoda has been criticized for being slow to speak up regarding the issues. The carmaker has recently faced a string of massive recalls and, only yesterday, became the subject of a second ongoing National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation into potential safety problems with its cars.

Also, late Thursday, the NHTSA announced it had officially opened an investigation into possible steering problems with Toyota’s Corolla compact cars.

The investigation involves reports that Corolla cars can wander or drift at highway speeds. Seven people have been injured in incidents that may have been related to the problem, according to a NHTSA report.

Toyota plans to cooperate fully in the investigation, a Toyota spokesman said.

Gene Grabowski, head of the crisis communication practice for Washington-based Levick Strategic Communications, said Toyoda "needs to be very well-prepared."

Grabowski’s firm has worked with more than a dozen witnesses called to testify on Capitol Hill, he said, and the most important thing they all must remember is to remain humble. A witness must remember that the members of Congress need to be seen helping their constituents and the best thing for a witness to do is to play his part.

"Your job in a hearing is to assist the members of Congress," he said, "and sometimes that means taking some lumps."

If Mr. Toyoda is smart, Grabowski said, he’ll come to Washington a few days early to meet privately with the Congressional members he’ll be testifying for.

"If you go in cold and they don’t know you," Grabowski said, "they’re far more likely to attack you." 

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Mexico’s benchmark local bonds are poised for the biggest annual rally in four years after underperforming regional debt in 2009 as the economy recovers and the peso gains, Stone Harbor Investment Partners said.

The yield on Mexico’s 10 percent peso bond due in December 2024 may plunge about 40 basis points, or 0.40 percentage point, in 2010, to 7.80 percent, said Pablo Cisilino, who manages $11.5 billion in emerging-market assets at Stone Harbor in New York. That would be the biggest one-year drop since 2006.

Mexican domestic debt returned 7.7 percent last year, less than the 10 percent return posted by Latin American local bonds on average, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s ELMI+ index. The region’s second-largest economy will grow 2.95 percent in 2010 after contracting 7 percent last year, the most since 1932, the median forecast of 19 economists in a Bloomberg survey shows.

“People were too pessimistic on the growth outlook for Mexico and very pessimistic about the peso,” Cisilino said. “Things are changing. They’re starting to come around.”

Daily volume in Mexican bonds traded in the secondary interbank market doubled to an average of 9.4 billion pesos in January’s first 14 days from the same period a year earlier, Citigroup Inc. said in a Jan. 19 report.

The peso is up 1.6 percent this year, the second-best performance against the dollar among 16 major currencies, behind South Korea’s Won, on prospects increased demand from the U.S., Mexico’s biggest export market, will help spur the recovery.

‘Strong Recovery’

The currency rose 0.6 percent to 12.8991 per U.S. dollar at 11:02 a.m. New York time. The yield on the 10 percent peso bond due in December 2024 fell four basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, to 8.18 percent, according to Banco Santander SA.

Miguel Messmacher, the chief economist at Mexico’s Finance Ministry, said in an interview Jan. 22 that there is a “very high” probability the country’s economy will grow more than 3 percent this year.

“Exports are showing a very strong recovery,” Messmacher said. “There are no doubts about the stability of external accounts in Mexico.”

Cisilino predicts the yield on Mexico’s 8.5 percent peso bonds maturing in 2018 may drop 50 basis points this year. The yield on the 2024 bonds slid 16 basis points in the past three months to 8.22 percent on Jan. 22, according to Banco Santander SA. The $135 million Stone Harbor Emerging Market Debt Fund that Cisilino helps manage returned 43 percent last year and is up 0.9 percent in 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Borrowing Costs

Peso bonds may also rise because inflation is unlikely to pick up enough in the next six months for central bank Governor Agustin Carstens to raise borrowing costs, according to Alejandro Hernandez, who oversees 13.5 billion pesos ($1 billion) in fixed-income assets at Grupo Financiero Interacciones SA in Mexico City no fax payday loans.

“There could be a rally in the first half of the year” if the bank keeps its inflation forecast and the peso remains strong, Hernandez said.

Citigroup’s Mexico City-based Banamex unit, Banco Santander SA and Bank of Nova Scotia are among six banks that pushed back their forecast for interest-rate increases after Carstens, 51, said this month a stronger peso will curb inflation.

Mexican inflation has absorbed price increases “well,” Carstens said at a conference in Mexico City on Jan. 8. He said the increases are coming from the government raising taxes and state-controlled prices.

“The direct impact on prices is limited, and will be transitory and fade after a year,” Carstens said.

Rate Forecasts

Banamex revised its call for a rate rise to September from May while Santander, Spain-based Banco Santander pushed back its forecast to October from February. Toronto-based Scotiabank shifted its call to April from February. The median estimate of 21 economists in a Jan. 12 Banamex survey is for borrowing costs to start rising in July, four months later than they predicted last month.

Inflation may quicken more than the central bank forecasts, said Ricardo Aguilar, an economist at Invex Casa de Bolsa SA in Mexico City.

“I think they’ll raise forecasts,” said Aguilar, who predicts an inflation rate of 5.44 percent this year and says the bank may increase forecasts in July. “There are other goods and services that could suffer a greater impact than what the market and the bank predict.”

The central bank will probably keep its inflation forecasts unchanged in its quarterly report on Jan. 27, said Luis Flores, an economist at Ixe Grupo Financiero SA in Mexico City. Policy makers said last month the annual inflation rate may climb as high as 4.75 percent in the first three months of 2010, rising to 5 percent in the April-to-July period and 5.25 percent in the second half.

Inflation

The annual inflation rate was 4.17 percent in the first half of January.

“The idea is gaining ground little by little that the bank won’t move rates,” Flores said. “We’ll see more interest in the debt market.”

Mexico’s benchmark Bolsa stock index fell 4.4 percent to 30,830.91 last week. Cemex SAB, the largest cement maker in the Americas, declined 8.1 percent to 13.73 pesos last week. Gruma SAB, Mexico’s largest maker of corn flour for tortillas, retreated 4 percent to 27.4 pesos from 28.55.

The Mexican currency dropped 2.1 percent to 12.9744 pesos per dollar last week.

Yields on Mexico’s benchmark peso bond due 2024 rose seven basis points, or 0.07 percentage point, to 8.22 percent, according to Banco Santander SA.

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BRIDGETON — A new Walmart Supercenter would produce an estimated $7 million a year in sales and property tax revenue beginning in 2012, the developer’s proposal says.

Bridgeton Rock Development LLC will present the number Tuesday to a government-appointed TIF Commission as part of the company’s application for up to $8 million in TIF financial benefits.

The $7 million in sales and property taxes is based on projected sales of $82.5 million and would be split among Bridgeton, the state, county and several other taxing jurisdictions. The terms of any TIF arrangement would determine how the money is allocated.

While Bridgeton officials embrace the idea, the proposal has stirred opposition in neighboring St. Ann. Officials there say a supercenter would mean the closing of a smaller, older Walmart on the border of St. Ann and Bridgeton. Ten percent or less of that store is in St. Ann, but it is St. Ann’s second-biggest source of revenue, behind a Shop ‘n Save.

St. Ann’s finances, already staggered by the decline of the Northwest Plaza, cannot take another hit, said city manager Matt Conley. He predicted layoffs of city employees would result, including a loss of police officers.

CHANGE IN TIF LAW

For years, local governments doled out tax-increment financing as a tool to encourage developers to locate in their cities. In 2007, the Missouri Legislature changed the law, taking some authority from the cities and adopting a regional countywide approach. That — combined with the downward spiral of the economy — put a lid on TIF requests.

Walmart’s proposal is only the second in St. Louis County to be considered under the new TIF law, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2008. University City recently approved a mixed-use residential and retail project.

Bridgeton officials say the amount of revenue their city would receive from the supercenter clearly would exceed the amount now realized from the current Walmart, at 10835 St. Charles Rock Road. That store originally was built entirely inside Bridgeton, but was expanded with a garden center that crossed over into St. Ann.

Bridgeton Mayor Conrad Bowers said it was safe to assume his city would gain in sales tax. "The store is going be larger, and have many more products, and the sales will be higher," he said.

Bridgeton Rock Development, an affiliate of THF Realty Inc., will make a formal presentation Tuesday to the Tax-Increment Financing Commission, made up of representatives of St. Louis County, the city and other jurisdictions.

TIF is a tax incentive that allows the developer to divert some funds that would go to taxes initially for development costs.

The developer is proposing to build a 159,000-square-foot Supercenter on about 13 acres on the south side of St guaranteed high risk personal loans. Charles Rock Road at Harmony Lane. The existing store, built in 1988, is almost 120,000 square feet — or about 40,000 square feet smaller.

THF said in a written proposal to the city that it was prepared to move immediately after getting approval. THF said it hoped to have title by this summer and open the Supercenter in the fall of 2011.

In addition to construction jobs, THF said the Supercenter would employ about 300 workers.

In September, Walmart closed another older, smaller store in Town and Country and opened a larger supercenter one mile away in neighboring Manchester. In St. Louis, a Sam’s Club was closed at the MarketPlace and reopened in adjacent Maplewood. Sam’s Club is a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

NO SET POLICY

Wal-Mart officials say the company does not have a policy of closing older stores and rebuilding. In fact, the company is engaged in a large-scale remodeling program it calls "Project Impact."

Ryan Horn, senior manager of public affairs for Wal-Mart, said that Project Impact would fully remodel 80 percent of the Walmart stores in the U.S. in the next five years.

At the same time, the company’s other business strategy is to build new supercenter in some communities to modernize.

In Bridgeton, he said, the Supercenter would allow the company to "add full retail-grocery service and make it a modern Walmart. That’s the crux of it. There’s a real need for it in the Bridgeton-St. Ann area and it’s a way of better servicing our customers."

He said Wal-Mart had no intention of tearing down the existing Walmart in St. Ann and would put it on the market.

"We have a very good track record of marketing our buildings," he said.

Even if the TIF Commission recommends against the TIF request, the Bridgeton City Council could overrule it if six of eight council members agreed.

Bowers added: "In my judgment, I think that it (the supercenter) will happen because I really believe it’s good for the area, it’s good for the county. It’s not like we’re stealing this from another area; the store is in Bridgeton."

Bowers said no major development would occur at the now vacant site — formerly a Grandpa Pigeon’s and then a Value City — without financial assistance in part because of the demolition costs.

"The point is Wal-Mart is going to build a Supercenter and I’m pleased they want to be in Bridgeton and at a site that needs to be redeveloped," Bowers said. "As far as I’m concerned it’s the correct use of a TIF."

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DETROIT–The race to build alternative energy vehicles moved up a notch Monday when Toyota Motor Corp. revealed a hybrid compact for the first time that could move into production within three to five years.

In unveiling a lime green FT-CH "dedicated hybrid," at the less splashy than usual North American International Auto Show, Toyota revealed it also plans to boost its gas-electric fleet with eight new models during the next few years – and none of them will be next-generation versions of current vehicles. The company now has seven hybrids in showrooms.

Toyota, which surpassed General Motors as the auto industry’s world leader last year, said it plans to hit one million in annual worldwide hybrid sales early this decade. Most of those sales will come in North America, where consumers, because of climbing gas prices and climate-change concerns, are starting to shift to smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles that are less damaging to the environment.

Toyota officials said the Japanese automaker’s assault on the alternative energy car market will include the development of a family of vehicles around the Prius, the company’s flagship hybrid model. The Prius, the world’s first hybrid, reached sales of more than two million during the past decade.

Ray Tanguay, a managing officer for parent Toyota and chief executive officer of the company’s Canadian manufacturing operations, said the FT-CH is under consideration for production in Japan in the three- to five-year range.

"It’s a fair expectation," he said.

Tanguay said Toyota is targeting young buyers, or what some company officials call the "8-bit generation," after the microprocessor technology that dominated the budding home video game industry during the 1980s. Pricing would be below the Prius, which now has a base manufacturer’s suggested retail price of about $27,000.

Toyota said the vehicle is lighter and more fuel efficient than the Prius. It is 22 inches shorter than the mid-size Prius but can still seat five people comfortably, the company noted in promotional material.

Prius sales improved marginally in Canada last year to 4,610 despite a sharp decline in the overall market.

Toyota, which struggled like other major automakers because of the world recession last year, wants to offer a variety of hybrid choices, including plug-in models by 2012 and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in 2015.

"We must re-imagine the automobile, a century after its invention, with powertrains that greatly reduce or even eliminate the use of conventional petroleum fuels," said Toyota Canada president Yoichi Tomihara. "The electrification of the automobile is just one of many alternatives and the most successful example of this to date has been the gas-electric hybrid."

However, Toyota and other automakers have acknowledged they face major a challenge to reduce the cost of hybrids and full electric vehicles to make them more affordable and practical to consumers because of battery costs, travel range and charging infrastructure.

Some other automakers promoted their hybrid and electric capabilities at the show. Fiat, Chrysler’s new partner, showed an electric Fiat 500 subcompact, for example, but the company did not disclose any timing for production.

The 22nd annual show’s media preview did not feature the splashy presentations that dominated the event in the past. Instead, companies showed smaller vehicles with an emphasis on fuel economy.

More politicians toured the event since the U.S. and Canadian governments have become shareholders in GM and Chrysler, which got taxpayer loans to stay alive last year.

"It’s not an auto show any more," said veteran industry watcher Dennis DesRosiers. "It’s a political spin show … the industry has to show governments they’re listening."

He said in the U.S., several automakers are working on costly technology to improve fuel economy without downsizing autos because Americans won’t buy enough smaller vehicles.

"The question is will there be enough volume because of the higher prices," he said. "It may take a decade before those prices come down enough."

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After a day of rumors, Apple Inc. confirmed late Friday that it has bought online music service Lala.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Palo Alto-based Lala’s backers include Boston-based Bain Capital Ventures, New York-based Warner Music Group and Bellevue, Wash.-based Ignition Partners.

Lala lets users listen to any song once without paying and pay 10 cents to be able to stream the music online, or 89 cents for most songs that can be played on a portable music player.

Cupertino-based Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), by contrast, charges 99 cents for most songs through the iTunes store.

Apple isn’t saying what it will do with Lala.

Mountain View-based Google Inc paperless payday loans. (NASDAQ:GOOG) provided a big boost to Lala’s traffic in November when it started directing music searches to the company’s site when users were looking for songs. But that also appeared to tax Lala’s capacity with previous users complaining of the service slowing down.

Palo Alto-based Facebook Inc. also began allowing its users to purchase songs as gifts to send to their friends on the social network.

But the New Yorks Times reported Friday night that the Apple deal was triggered when Lala executives determined that they could not make a profit in the near term and approached the iTunes owner.

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