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...National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates that 195 million people visited stores and websites over the Black Friday holiday weekend, up from 172 million last year. However, shoppers spent less, with average spending dipping 8%, to $343.31 a person from $372.57 a year earlier. Total spending over the holiday kickoff weekend reached $41.2 billion, up only slightly from $41 billion a year...
...outlets. Sales fluctuated by region, with the West scoring the biggest increase at 4.7%. This was followed by the Midwest, where sales rose 1.3%, and the South, which posted a 0.6% gain. The Northeast took the biggest hit, with sales tumbling 4.9%. ShopperTrak co-founder Bill Martin reiterated his earlier projection of a 1.6% sales increase for 2009's holiday season...
Davidowitz speculates that the frugal tone will pressure retailers to discount earlier and possibly deeper than originally planned over the next few weeks. "I think many of them will reassess their numbers and determine that more promotions are in order," says Davidowitz. "That will be particularly true in department stores," where women's apparel has been weak, he says...
...order to determine their stage of slumber. Using an electroencephalogram (EEG), investigators monitored the sleepers' brain activity, and just when the squiggly lines on the screen showed that participants had entered deep sleep, researchers began playing a series of 25 of the sounds that the individual had heard earlier in the memory game. "[The volume] was a little over a whisper, probably much [quieter] than ... your iPod," says John Rudoy, one of the study's authors and a graduate student at Northwestern. (See the top 10 medical breakthroughs...
...heart of Berlusconi's culture is the velina, or showgirl, who is served up to Italians every day, like pasta. Some veline merely stand mute while male presenters talk. Some give on-air lap dances to chat-show guests, as did one earlier this year to Inter Milan coach José Mourinho. Others play the funny little games producers devise, posing as table legs, or braving cold showers in tight dresses. Some simply strip: Mediaset's homepage recently featured a clip of a blonde clad in a black garbage bag, slowly lowering it to reveal her breasts. Degrading? Undoubtedly...