CHICAGO (Reuters) — For US retailers that sell everything from toilet paper to refrigerators, 2010 may be more about winning sales from competitors than getting consumers to buy a lot more.

Discounters like Target Corp and Sears Holdings Corp's Kmart stores posted improved sales performances yesterday, while home improvement retailer Home Depot Inc and department store chain Macy's also forecast better sales in 2010.

Many of them saw demand pick up for items that sat out the recession on store shelves, but cautioned investors that they didn't expect a huge improvement in sales trends this year while unemployment remains high.

That raises the competitive stakes for store chains, whose investors are focused on seeing better sales after more than a year of cost-cuts and store closings.

"While we still see little meaningful near-term improvement in macro-economic conditions, we do believe there is opportunity to gain market share by increasing same-store sales," said Macy's chief executive Terry Lundgren.

Macy's said it expected a one percent to two percent increase in sales at stores open at least a year for the current fiscal year, compared with a 5.3 percent decline last year.

Shares tracked by the Standard & Poor's Retail Index fell 0.3 percent. Target slipped 1.3 percent, Sears fell 0.5 percent and Macy's rose 0.4 percent. Home Depot, whose quarterly results suggested continued gains against rival Lowe's Cos, rose 1.6 percent.

One positive sign is that customers of both Home Depot and Lowe's were more willing to spend on big-ticket home projects such as painting, new flooring and redoing their kitchens after a prolonged slump in the US housing market.

Target has seen customers adding a few more home improvement and apparel items to their baskets, not just buying essentials like food, and expects sales of such discretionary merchandise to improve.

"Today guests are telling us they're increasingly confident and are visiting more often and shopping more of the store," Kathee Tesija, Target's executive vice president of merchandising, said during a conference call with analysts.

But consumer caution was also evident in weekly sales numbers. The ICSC/Goldman Sachs same-store sales index rose 0.9 percent in the week ended February 20, compared with a year earlier. ICSC research forecasts a two percent rise in February same-store sales overall.

Macy's posted fourth-quarter profit of $1.40, excluding one-time items, compared with an average analyst estimate of $1.37, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Home Depot posted a profit that beat analysts expectations in the quarter, compared with a year-earlier loss. It forecast increases of about 2.5 percent in both total and same-store sales this fiscal year, while net earnings from continuing operations should rise about 15.5 percent to $1.79 a share.

Target slightly beat analysts estimates as it avoided drastic clearance sales that crimped results in the holiday quarter last year. Sales at stores open at least a year, a key gauge of a retailer's health, rose 0.6 percent. .

Sears' profit more than doubled, largely on cost cuts, as its same-store sales still fell 2.5 percent.