Word: 80s
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...roots. Traditional department stores ranging from Saks Fifth Avenue to Neiman Marcus have suffered from poor business as customers flock to discounters and back- to-basics stores, notably the Limited, the Gap, Wal-Mart and K Mart. The 75-store Sharper Image chain, which made its reputation in the '80s with high- tech gadgets, has been blurring its image to include more low-cost, practical goods. Example: a $19.95 aluminum-can crusher for recyclers...
Sales of the ultimate yuppie symbol, the BMW, fell to 63,600 in the U.S. last year, a drop of 28% from 1985 levels. Meanwhile, Honda sales increased 29.7%, to 716,500. The sales pitch for autos today would have bored the driving gloves off an '80s car buff: safety features (antilock brakes, air bags), versatility (four doors, built-in child seats) and value. A 1991 Pontiac Grand Prix model sells for under $20,000 but looks (on the outside, anyway) like last year's sporty $26,000 Turbo model...
...culture machine is rushing to catch up with the times. Gilded '80s shows such as Dynasty and Falcon Crest are gone, swept away by a wave of proudly downscale fare, including Roseanne, The Simpsons and Married . . . with Children. Campy hobnobber Robin Leach of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous has been replaced in the hearts of viewers by chatty Jeff Smith of The Frugal Gourmet and nonaerobic carpenter Norm Abram of The New Yankee Workshop. Love stories, melodramas and family films have taken over Hollywood. Home Alone, Ghost and Pretty Woman, for example, collectively reaped more than $500 million...
...some analyses, the 1990s will be an anxious era of dues paying for the excesses of the '80s. That may be true in a public sense, but in private lives, how much fun was the past decade? For most Americans it was a time of struggling to keep up with everyone who seemed to be making it big. Now that the bubble of financial speculation has burst, people should -- and do -- feel entitled to accept more modest aspirations. The real estate market was a prime example of a 1980s torture track. Americans started thinking of housing as a vehicle...
...after 36 weeks, a timetable he accomplished with Miss Saigon in London. Such claims of financial wizardry might be suspect from almost anyone else but this disarmingly frank and casual ex-stagehand. A keen intellect with a common touch, he presented four of the foremost international hits of the '80s, Cats, Phantom, Les Miz and Little Shop of Horrors, and is regarded as the world's nonpareil producer...