RETAIL

Better Days in Store: It may not be a sign that the economy is picking up as much as it shows faith in the future. But in either case, the Wet Seal and Clothestime retailers have both signed new leases to expand their respective chains.

Wet Seal, a mall-oriented seller of moderately priced clothing for women, picked up seven leases for new stores in Texas, Florida, Washington and California. The new Texas stores are in Plano and Austin; the new Florida store is in Clearwater; the Washington store is in Seattle; and the California stores are in Valencia, Sunnyvale and the Moreno Valley.

The chain, based in Irvine, plans six stores in addition to the seven by year’s end, which would bring its total to 121.

Clothestime, a seller of discount women’s apparel for strip shopping centers and other lower-cost locations, has opened six new stores in California: in Banning, Cathedral City, Perris, South Lake Tahoe, San Jose and Alameda. The chain, based in Anaheim, plans another 35 new stores by year’s end for a total of 466.

“Our stores in California are doing very well,” Chairman John Ortega II said.