IN BRIEF

NEW YORK

Retail leaders: Change needed for survival

NEW YORK -- Retailers need to offer customers more services to make themselves indispensable and work with the government to help solve economic and social woes even as they deal with seismic changes in consumer behavior, industry leaders said Monday.

Departing Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott told retailers they need to get involved in broader issues such as health care, immigration, energy independence and environmental sustainability, and said that doing so would resonate with shoppers and improve the bottom line.

"We need to tackle the hard issues," Scott said at the annual National Retail Federation convention, noting that retailers in particular are close to what consumers are thinking. "As businesses we have a responsibility to society. We also have an extraordinary opportunity."

DETROIT

New version of Prius has Toyota confident

DETROIT -- Toyota Motor Corp.'s sleeker, more fuel-efficient update to its iconic Prius goes on sale this spring in a market growing more crowded with competing hybrids and battered by the global financial crisis.

The automaker's executives are confident that the third-generation gas-electric Prius, which promises a city-highway average of 50 miles to the gallon, will maintain its spot as the top-selling hybrid in the U.S.

The 2010 Prius, unveiled Monday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, boasts a 4 mpg improvement over the current model, the most fuel-efficient vehicle ranked by the Environmental Protection Agency.