Word: basics
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Often it is not the basic product or service that is appealing but the atmosphere in which it is provided. Phil Akin was working his way through Iowa State University in 1983 by installing coin-operated machines on campus when he decided to start his kind of launderette, a place where people could get a cold beer or play a hot game of eight ball while they waited for their clothes to dry. Akin opened the first Duds 'N Suds store, complete with pool table and bar, with a $120,000 loan from an Ames, Iowa, bank. Since then, Akin...
...every thriving chain, of course, is an innovative, or at least appealing, idea. Daniel Bishop and five other commercial cleaners founded Omaha-based Maids International in 1979 to provide housecleaning services to busy working couples. The partners devised a team-cleaning approach in which four people can complete 25 basic jobs, from vacuuming and dusting to changing linens and washing windows, in less than an hour. Average charge: $55. Maids International teams working for 197 franchises now clean more than 10,000 homes in 33 states, the District of Columbia and Canada every month...
About half the nation's 550,000 black mineworkers walked off their jobs, and at least a third of the mines were seriously affected. The basic issue was money: a demand by the National Union of Mineworkers for an across-the-board 30% increase, compared with hikes of 15% to 23% granted by the Chamber of Mines, which represents the six largest employers. Until now, according to the union, the average black worker has made $170 a month, while employers claimed the figure was $274. Both sides agreed that the average black miner earns only about one-fifth as much...
...contras to agree on an immediate cease-fire. The U.S. would then suspend all military aid to the rebels ("humanitarian" help would continue), and Nicaragua would end its imports of military supplies from the Soviet Union. Nicaragua would be obliged to lift its state of emergency, restore basic civil rights, and establish an independent electoral commission that would plan for open elections. In addition, all foreign military personnel would be withdrawn from Central America and U.S. maneuvers in Honduras suspended...
...marriage banns also led to a divorce. S.D.P. Leader David Owen, who had helped found the party as a breakaway movement from Labor, had opposed the merger, citing basic differences on defense policy. Last week he made good on a threat to resign. Steel called that "logical," while decrying Owen's opposition as "profoundly mistaken...