Word: group
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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According to retail expert Brit Beemer, electronics are virtually tied with toys as the top Christmas-gift item for the first time in more than 25 years. In a survey conducted last weekend by Beemer's firm, America's Research Group, and UBS Global Equity Research, 30% of consumers cited electronics when asked what gift they were buying most often (30.8% said toys). Last year, only 23.7% of respondents said they'd purchase an electronics item. The sector's strength has compelled Beemer, for the first time in his 19 years of conducting Christmas consumer surveys, to revise his holiday...
...Group, a market-research firm, says the average price for LCD TVs was down 22%, to $535, during the week of Black Friday. Notebook-computer prices dropped 26%, to $500, and unit sales of computers increased a whopping 63%. Prices for netbooks, the lighter, more portable cousin to traditional laptop computers, also dropped. Camcorder prices fell 33%. And these days, the deals extend beyond Black Friday. "One of the phenomena we are seeing is that retailers are really stretching the promotional period," says Ross Rubin, consumer-electronics analyst at NPD. "Retailers are looking to prime the pump...
...growing group of Christians, the focus on the commercial aspect of Christmas is the greatest threat to one of Christianity's holiest days. "It's the shopping, the going into debt, the worrying that 'If I don't spend enough money, someone will think I don't love them,' " says Portland, Ore., pastor Rick McKinley. "Christians get all bent out of shape over the fact that someone didn't say 'Merry Christmas' when I walked into the store. But why are we expecting the store to tell our story? That's just ridiculous...
...sexual orientation did not emerge as a campaign issue before the Nov. 3 mayoral election among four candidates. But it did prompt attacks before the runoff against Gene Locke, a former city attorney. A group of African-American pastors criticized her supposed "gay agenda," and a conservative activist distributed flyers featuring her and her partner and asking, "Is this the image Houston wants to portray?" But the attacks did not find traction; a Houston Chronicle/Zogby poll found that Parker's sexuality mattered to just 18% of likely voters...
Just minutes before the attack - which took place on Sunday night at the end of a political rally - a group of young opponents had started heckling Berlusconi. The Prime Minister barked back and ultimately led his supporters in chants of "Shame! Shame! Shame!" in response to the protesters. In that context, Berlusconi's decision to display his bloody wounds could well have been a further rhetorical flourish, a melodramatic "Look what you've contributed to." (See a story about Silvio Berlusconi's legal woes...