Word: retailing
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...snowstorm? Or a more serious drop in consumer confidence? It isn't surprising that different people wanted to spin the decline in March retail sales in different ways; what was curious was who picked which way. Republicans, who might normally ascribe the 1% decline, the steepest in two years, to Clintonite economic malaise, swore it was a temporary glitch in a continuing recovery, caused by the March blizzard that kept East Coast consumers from shopping. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, who would be expected to agree with the anomalous act-of-God explanation, instead declared gravely that "recovery is at risk...
...Harvard Square has been able to be more recession proof than other parts of the greater Boston retail market, although we have not been able to be totally free of the pressure," she said...
Meanwhile, kiosks offering plants, parrots, puppies and Persian kittens occupy much of the sidewalk space on The Rambles, Barcelona's touristy retail boulevard. On Friday afternoons visitors and city residents alike mob the Passeig de Gracia because the weather's nice, they feel like it and they're happy...
Even the famously middlebrow Wal-Mart chain is getting in on the act. The retailer is designing an "environmental store" in Lawrence, Kansas, that could become the prototype for all future Wal-Marts and for retrofitting the chain's existing stores. The retail outlet will be built mostly of wood and concrete block -- materials that require 33% less energy to produce than steel -- and feature an elaborate, high-efficiency lighting system enhanced by skylights that use holographic films to spread daylight evenly over the space. The store will have its own recycling center so that shipping boxes never have...
...skilled workers in developing economies from Asia to Eastern Europe. U.S. executives have taken to talking of global "market prices" for employees, as if they were investing in cattle futures. "We understand it's just business, but it's still awfully demeaning," says Deb Donaldson, a part-time retail sales clerk in Moline, Illinois. Manpower's Fromstein dismisses such complaints of exploitation, pointing out that his own profit margins are razor thin (1.3%). Says he: "We are not exploiting people. We are not setting the fees. The market is. We are matching people with demands. What would our workers...