Word: retailing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...answer, shopkeepers are bracing for what may be the toughest Christmas selling season in a decade. Says Bernard Brennan, chief executive of Montgomery Ward: "There are more negative dynamics working than at any other time I've seen in my entire marketing career." After a year in which retail sales barely kept up with a 4.8% inflation rate, merchants have watched even that shopping pace flag just before the onset of the most important selling season of the year, one that typically accounts for as much as 60% of annual retail profits. Overall, sales (excluding gasoline) fell 0.1% in October...
...chill in consumer spending this Christmas would come at the worst possible time for a retailing industry that is desperately overbuilt and heavily indebted. While the U.S. population grew only 10% during the 1980s, a building boom expanded retail square footage 75%. As a result, nearly half of all retail space is superfluous, according to Management Horizons, the market- research division of Price Waterhouse. Making matters worse, a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions during the past few years has saddled the 30 largest retail companies with a staggering debt burden of $60 billion. Struggling to meet interest and debt payments...
Usually, the onset of the holidays spurs an increase in retail hiring to handle the surge in business. But during the past three months, for the first time since the 1981 recession, the number of workers employed in the industry has been shrinking as the crucial shopping period approaches. In many stores customers who can find what they want may have trouble locating someone to ring it up. Even so, because of troubles elsewhere in the economy, stores have been able to attract some very impressive temps. In Manhattan, for example, where nearly 50,000 Wall Street traders and other...
...Deceptive Mailings Prevention Act of 1990, which was signed this month by President Bush, bans mail solicitations that masquerade as government notices and prey particularly upon the fears of the elderly. Last January a New York State law went into effect that barred retail stores from keeping records of the addresses and phone numbers of customers who use credit cards. The practice is intended to verify identifications, but it is increasingly used to compile mailing lists, which are then rented...
...biggest British music import to hit U.S. shores lately is not George Michael's latest album or a new Rolling Stones tour; instead it is 70,000 sq. ft. of retail space. That is the total size of two superstores that Britain's HMV Group Worldwide plans to open in Manhattan this week. The larger of the two will be the biggest music store in the U.S. Fast-growing HMV -- the initials stand for His Master's Voice -- is the largest chain in Britain, and has opened stores in Australia, Canada and Japan. Among its innovations are in-store music...