Keeping you informed is one of our goals at The Motley Fool. So just in case you missed it, here's a recap of what happened during the week of 1/15/07-1/19/07 in the retail sector, as reported from our best and brightest.

Monday
We were off Monday to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr., arguably one of the most influential people of the 20th century.

Tuesday
Apparently, Landry's Restaurants (NYSE:LNY) woke up hungry on Tuesday, as it decided to gobble up smaller high-end steakhouse Smith & Wollensky (NASDAQ:SWRG). The deal is still on order pending approval, but Rick Munarriz thinks Landry's may be able to get more out of Smith & Wollensky than the steakhouse has been able to do by itself.

In our Fool on the Street segment, where we fill you in on analyst presentations, Tom Taulli give a nice synopsis of how Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) plans to jumpstart things in 2007. I know it certainly caught my attention.

Wednesday
On Wednesday, we kicked off our quest for The Best Retail Stock for 2007. If you haven't seen it yet, 11 writers share their thoughts on 11 retail stocks. I may be a bit biased, but there are lots of great ideas. Moreover, there's a chance for you to chime in as well by sharing your opinion with the CAPS community.

Is it me, or does it seems as though every time Alyce Lomax writes about McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) performance it's only great? Boy, it sure seems that way over the last year or so. And apparently, December was no different.

Thursday
What happens when Wall Street analysts and buy-side money managers move in opposite directions with their recommendations? One thing is that it gives writers like Anders Bylund a reason to dig a little deeper into our CAPS community intelligence database to get a third opinion, and that's exactly what he did with Blockbuster (NYSE:BBI). Click here to see what he found.

Is Sears Holdings (NASDAQ:SHLD) getting back in touch with its softer side by hiring John Walden as its chief customer officer? Perhaps. And while Rick Munarriz is right to poke a little fun at the title, he's also right that Walden's got a big challenge helping Sears continue to fight the good retail fight.

I'll wrap things up on a high note. Fashion retailer Guess? (NYSE:GES) updated its guidance to the upside yet again. And with that, our own Seth Jayson has a 5-bagger. Fortunately for readers, he shared his thoughts on how you can find one, too, as well as how you can stay away from landmines along the way.

Friday
Whoa! That's today. Better check out the site to see what's going on.

So that's the week that was in retail. Check out a preview of next week.

Retail editor and Inside Value team member David Meier, ranked 597 out of 20,319 in CAPS, does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned. You can view his TMF profile here. The Fool takes its disclosure policy very seriously.