Retail roundup: Target, Liz Claiborne and JCPenney, retail sales

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-- Target is planning to hire more than 92,000 temporary workers this holiday season, and it’s testing a new program that allows interested job applicants to text the retailer from their cellphones to get information about the positions. The move is intended to ‘make it easier and more convenient’ for job seekers, Target spokesman Eddie Baeb said.

Half a dozen Los Angeles-area Targets are participating in the text program, including stores in Compton, Corona and San Bernardino.

-- J.C. Penney Co. said it had reached an agreement to acquire the Liz Claiborne family of brands as well as the U.S. and Puerto Rico rights for the fashion jewelry brand Monet for $267.5 million.

The department store chain has been the exclusive licensee for all Liz Claiborne and Claiborne-branded merchandise in the U.S. and Puerto Rico since August of last year.

‘The brands we are acquiring hold tremendous appeal for our customers, and the performance of the Liz Claiborne and Monet brands at J.C. Penney has consistently exceeded our high expectations,’ Chief Executive Myron E. Ullman III said in a statement.

-- U.S. retail and food services sales rose 1.1% to $395.5 billion in September from August, the largest gain in seven months, the Department of Commerce said. Sales were up 7.9% when compared with September 2010.

That’s a bit of good news as the nation heads into the all-important holiday season; retail groups have been estimating that holiday sales will rise a modest 2% to 3% for the November-December period.

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-- Andrea Chang