Seriously, Overstock.com (OSTK) has to provide more entertainment value per dollar of market cap than any company in America.

Consider yesterday’s developments at the online retailer. The company disclosed in both a press release and an 8-K filing with the SEC that it has fired Grant Thornton as its auditor. Grant Thornton had become the company’s auditor in March, replacing Price Waterhouse.

Overstock lays out the situation in a classically loopy press release that leads with a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche: “all things are subject to interpretation; whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.”

Overstock says that in February, it “was notified” that it had overpaid a fulfillment partner by about $700,000, but that the same partner asserted that OSTK might owe it more than $400,000.

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Blowing away terrorists, apparently, never gets old.

The new videogame Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, set to hit stores Tuesday, is a sequel spawned by sequels. But rather than following the frequent pattern of franchises fading as they age, Modern Warfare 2 is the most highly anticipated game of the season.

“It’s the biggest launch in our history, bigger than Halo 3,” said Tony Bartel, merchandising and marketing chief for videogame retailer GameStop, which has been taking pre-orders since April.

The manufacturer, Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI), has been advertising the first-person shooter game since March.

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Depending on whom you ask, U.S. online shopping is either in unprecedented decline–or one of the only bright spots in American retail.

On Thursday, comScore (SCOR) reported that U.S. online spending in the third quarter slipped two percent to $29.6 billion versus last year. That represents the first time since comScore began tracking the figures that online spending has shrunk for two quarters in a row. (Online shopping was flat in the first quarter, and slipped one percent in the second quarter.) ComScore was slightly more upbeat about the potential of growth in the fourth quarter, if only because we’ll be comparing it to last year’s dismal fourth quarter.

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There was a telling bit of news on the continued travails of the U.S. consumer today from a small Texas retail chain called Conn’s (CONN). (In general, I would say calling a retailer “Conn’s” is not something I would recommend. But I digress.)

Conn’s sells consumer electronics, home appliances, furniture, mattresses, computers and lawn and garden products in 75 stores in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. And according to a statement from the company this morning, this is not an ideal time to be in that particular line of business.

“Economic conditions in the company’s markets have deteriorated significantly during the current year,” the company warned, citing a rise in the Texas jobless rate to 8 percent in August 2009 from 5.6 percent in December and 5 percent in August 2008. “As a result, the Company’s sales and credit portfolio performance have been adversely impacted.”

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A recent shift in merchandising strategy by the world’s largest retailer spells more trouble for DVD sales and the entertainment industry that depends on them for profits.

As part of a larger effort to clean up its aisles and appeal to higher-end shoppers, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) is doing away with display cases to promote the latest hot movie titles.

The move comes as major film studios are reeling from declines in revenue from DVD sales as cash-strapped consumers turn to low-cost rental services and digital downloads for home movies.

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Fancy new smart phones and laptops may generate more buzz, but the desktop PC remains the workhorse of the office. Bosses who outfit staffers with mobile devices, however, may be able to wring more work out of them, according to a new Forrester (FORR) study.

The research firm surveyed more than 2,000 employees at companies with 100 or more workers to find how they use technology. Three-quarters use desktop computers, and two-thirds are anchored to their desks for at least four hours a day.

Laptops were only available to one in three computer-using workers, though this varied by profession–47 percent of business employees had them, compared with only 17 percent of retail and manufacturing workers. A mere 11 percent of workers owned smart phones, though that percentage was higher for salespeople and marketers.

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Blue Nile Inc. (NILE) is expected to unveil a major overhaul of its Web site Tuesday as the online jeweler tries to broaden its appeal, especially to women. But like other e-commerce sites retooling to combat slowing growth, it faces the tricky task of trying to make improvements without losing core customers.

The vast majority of those who buy rings and necklaces from Blue Nile are men, drawn to the extra information and control–as well as possible discounts–they get by shopping online instead of at a high-pressure jewelry counter. Yet most Blue Nile purchases are given to women, whom the retailer would like to have a more premium view of its brand.

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One thing’s for sure about the employees at Microsoft’s (MSFT) new retail stores: they’re going to need strong backs and biceps.

In the job listings Microsoft posted for its new stores yesterday, the company lists a number of unsurprising requirements for prospective retail workers. They need to be able to provide a “warm welcome” for customers, “execute the sales and service strategies” of Microsoft’s retail group and restock shelves. The listings also say workers need to be able to lift and carry 75 pounds (”loading and unloading all those great products and carrying purchases out for our customers will be required!”).

That hefty weight requirement raises some questions: Will Microsoft have barbells at the ready during its interview process to test how much staffers can deadlift?

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SanDisk (SNDK) shares are coming under pressure this morning after Needham analyst Y. Edwin Mok cut his rating on the stock to Under Perform from Hold.

Mok writes in a research note that the downgrade reflects “early signs of weakness in the NAND flash memory sector that we believe will lead to lower prices.” He contends checks find that NAND product inventories have increased substantially, and that demand in both the retail and OEM channel has slowed since May. Heading into the second half, he writes, “we are concerned that production ramps”–Mok expects higher output from both Samsung and Toshiba–“will swing the NAND sector into oversupply.”

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The rebound of the online advertising sector appears to be temporarily delayed.

JMP Securities analyst Sameet Sinha writes in a research note that “after a strong March, a solid April and an in-line May,” there had been talks of an online ad turnaround. But he contends momentum has faded in June. “Budgets have declined as advertisers are not feeling as chipper anymore,” he writes. “Travel and finance continue to be weak, while retail is exhibiting mixed trends.”

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Retailers aren’t likely to resume spending on their IT infrastructure again until at least 2010, according to NCR (NCR) Chairman and CEO William Nuti.

In an interview Friday afternoon with Tech Trader Daily, Nuti said that demand for the company’s point-of-sale retail terminals remains “slow around the world.” He says the sector will want to see signs of a pick-up in consumer discretionary spending in the upcoming back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons before showing a renewed willingness to invest. One key, he says, could be the direction of fuel price, which as Nuti notes has a strong correlation with consumer discretionary spending.

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Consumers still aren’t buying gadgets.

The latest Commerce Department retail sales data, which showed a disappointing 0.4 percent fall overall in April from March, includes a 2.8 percent drop in sales at electronics and appliance stores, which is worse than any other individual category. Sales were down 12 percent on a year-over-year basis. In March, sales were down 7.8 percent sequentially for electronics stores, and 8.8 percent year over year.

As the Wall Street Journal notes, the 0.4 percent drop was substantially worse than the Street expectations for a 0.1 percent rise in retail sales over the previous month.

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GameStop (GME) is lending new copies of videogames to their retail store employees and later selling them as new, unused copies, the gamer blog Kotaku asserts. The post contends the practice may be a violation of federal trade laws. Kotaku said the company declined to comment on the practice.

The blog post notes that the videogame retailer’s policy, verified by a number of employees, is that sales associates can check out one item of store merchandise for personal use for up to four days.

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Best Buy (BBY) this morning reported sharply higher-than-expected profits for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Feb. 28.

For the quarter, the last large national electronics retailer posted revenue of $14.724 billion, a bit below the Street consensus at $14.8 billion. But adjusted EPS of $1.61 a share nicely beat the Street at $1.40 a share. (In the release, Best Buy says the Street had been expecting $1.38. But whatever.) Comparable store sales were down 4.9 percent in the quarter, but gross margin improved to 24.6 percent from 23.7 percent a year ago.

For 2010, the retailer sees revenues of $46.5 billion to $48.5 billion; the Street has been forecasting $48.1 billion.

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