Word: retailing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...scrambling to fill in the gaps between Bush's long-term vision and the vulnerability they're feeling as summer driving season approaches. Bush's Energy Department is doing its part, insisting in its latest oil/gas forecast that "supplies are expected to improve and the chances that spot and retail prices will calm down are good." But Frank Murkowski, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, sent out a memo Wednesday listing six ideas which "will solve our energy problems in the short term...
...When OPEC turns the tap off, it takes a few weeks for American consumers to feel the effect at the pump. The lag time for retail prices depends primarily on gasoline inventories. But when there's a fire at an Illinois refinery, as there was on April 28, it takes only a few days for the price of gas to spike at pumps in Detroit. Combine a fire in one place with a new regulation in another and you've got a national price spike like the one that happened last year, when a Michigan pipeline burst in June...
...heads into its May confab Tuesday, the economy's prospects for dodging a recession are actually looking pretty good. On Friday, encouraging reports for April on retail sales (up), consumer sentiment (up) and wholesale inflation (pretty tame) put a dent in the unanimous expectation that the Fed heads would chop another 50 basis points, or a half-point, off the short-term interest rate that is the Fed's raison d'etre. Theoretically, Fed cuts take 6-18 months to work their magic in the economy (though the stock market "wealth effect" has in recent years been credited with speeding...
...There are some clear victories. The company is providing materials, photofinishing and patented technology to many of the same online players that were supposed to destroy it only a year ago. And like Fuji, it is selling its retail partners on do-it-yourself picture kiosks and professional digital minilabs that can easily scan traditional film onto the Net and convert digital shots into hard copies...
Slumping consumer confidence and declining retail sales have already taken a job toll. At Southern University, a traditionally black school in Baton Rouge, La., retailers J.C. Penney and Mervyn's have cut their interviews by two-thirds. "The options for students are becoming more limited," says Kris Tiefenthaler, the director for college relations at Sears Roebuck. But retailers have high churn rates, so Sears--which recently announced store closings and layoffs--is sticking to plans to hire 200 new grads this year...