Word: bargaining
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Nevertheless, many shoppers have been procrastinating in the hopes of scoring lalst-minute gifts at bargain-basement prices. As of mid-December, the average consumer had completed only 46.7% of their holiday shopping, according to a survey conducted by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation. This was down considerably from the 54% who had finished their gift-buying at the same time in 2005 through 2007, says Kathy Grannis, a spokesman for the NRF. According to the survey, about 42 million people, or 19.1%, had not even started their shopping as of Dec. 16 while only 8.6% had finished...
...third to a half of their last-weekend take (The Blind Side holding the sturdiest), except for the Oscar favorite Up in the Air, which soared 30% by adding 103 venues to last week's 72; it amassed nearly as much per screen as Avatar, and at relative bargain-basement prices. One new romantic comedy in wide release was meant to lure a more mature demographic than Avatar, but attracted almost nobody. Did You Hear About the Morgans?, with Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant as a married couple on the lam from a killer, cadged a feeble $7 million...
...That's why the creators behind Near London are betting that they can coax crowd-weary bargain hunters into the district via virtual reality. Near London is a 3D cyber-version of the West End that its developers say is the most realistic and accurate virtual recreation of a city center ever produced. Launched Nov. 30, it is indeed impressive-looking, thanks to a laser-scanning technology that picks up details down to one fifth of an inch (5mm) and faithfully depicts every brick and slab of concrete. Once users download the software (which is free), they can stroll...
...there are reasons to question how effective and efficient such a program would be. First of all, it is misleading to imply that companies aren't hiring because workers aren't cheap enough. As Dale Mortensen, a professor of economics at Northwestern University, points out, workers are a real bargain right now. Unit labor costs - how much a company has to pay people to produce a unit of whatever it is that the company makes - have been flat or falling for all of 2009. Between the second and third quarters, labor costs dropped at an annual rate...
...that is the best the Administration is now hoping for, a variety of sources tell TIME. Early on, Obama had entertained the possibility of striking a grand bargain with North Korea: a nuclear deal, plus U.S. diplomatic recognition of the North and a move toward a formal peace treaty (South Korea and North Korea are still technically at war, since no treaty was signed to end the Korean War). Kim's provocative acts have blown those expectations away. "[The Administration] feels as if it held out its hand early on, only to have it bitten," says Bruce Klingner, a senior...