Word: chaine
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...retail match made in heaven suddenly crashed to earth last week. Ames Department Stores (fiscal 1989 sales: $3.4 billion) declared bankruptcy under Chapter 11 as the result of lingering complications from its 1988 acquisition of the Zayre chain. Before the merger, the Connecticut-based Ames had been a thriving retailer renowned for its management acuity. When the company bought the 392-store Zayre chain for $800 million, Ames closed many unsuccessful outlets and introduced more national brands. But Zayre's patrons, who were used to periodic deep markdowns, disliked the new Ames policy of everyday low prices. Customer loyalty...
Maybe so, but even booksellers have come under fire. For months, the Rev. Donald Wildmon's American Family Association, based in Tupelo, Miss., has campaigned to get stores to remove Playboy, Penthouse and similar magazines from their shelves. Last week the 1,300-store Waldenbooks chain, the nation's largest, launched a counterattack in the form of full-page ads in 32 U.S. newspapers, denouncing "censorship efforts" and "an increasing pattern of intolerance...
B.A.T. was forced to sell Saks as well as the Chicago-based Marshall Field's chain as part of a strategy to fend off a hostile takeover bid led by Sir James Goldsmith, the Anglo-French raider. In an abrupt turnaround early last week, the takeover artist said he would drop his pursuit of B.A.T. But with the Saks sale already in motion and bids running high, the British company went through with the transaction two days later...
Investcorp posted profits of $52 million last year from holdings that include a 50% stake in Gucci, the leather-goods empire, as well as control of Color Tile, the largest U.S. floor-coverings retailer, and Carvel, the ice- cream chain. After taking over Tiffany in a friendly buyout in 1984, Investcorp took the jewelry chain public again within three years and made a profit of $100 million...
...atmosphere and is a great form of exercise for this fitness-crazed era. But in the age of high tech, bicycles have long seemed old-fashioned, a classical conveyance stuck with a century-old design: two equal-size wheels, a welded steel frame, manual gear shifting, pedals and a chain. While cars have loaded up with electronic gadgetry, bicycles have watched the wheels of progress roll...