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That great American retailing machine, Wal-Mart Stores, just keeps rolling along, doesn't it? Even in the current "challenging retail environment," Wal-Mart announced last week that sales in the fiscal year ending Jan. 31 increased a respectable 16% to $191.3 billion, while earnings hit a record $6.3 billion-a 17% jump. But hidden amid that thicket of good news is a thorny problem: Wal-Mart's European operations aren't reaching the levels of growth needed to make the company's expensive leap across the pond pay off. "Wal-Mart has not yet succeeded in markets that...
...largest training camp in Pakistan is run by Lashkar-i-Taiba, a wing of an Afghan mujahedin group known as Markaz Al Dawa Wal Irshad. It is set on a vast mountain clearing overlooking Muzaffarabad. (Training grounds for the other three militant groups are located in the North-West Frontier province.) Armed men guard the facility round-the-clock. There are only two structures, one an armory, the other a kitchen. Trainees live and sleep in the open, whether in the sweltering summer or the depth of winter. The field is dotted with installations used to teach the fervent young...
Still, retailers believe in Santa Claus. Some 60% of all holiday shopping takes place in the final two weeks, and merchants expect bargain-sniffing consumers to pounce at the last minute. "If the weather clears, the shoppers will be out," says Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart. "They have shown they do have disposable income." Now they have to show they'll spend...
...malls were down nearly 10% from a year ago, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. Sears has moved its after-Christmas sale to the week before, urging shoppers that this is "no time to fool around." Everyone from the Gap and Victoria's Secret to Circuit City, Wal-Mart and Home Depot is feeling the pain. Even online shopping isn't growing as fast as expected. Last week eToys announced its sales were lower than expected and it may run out of money in the spring. "For the consumer," says Richard Berner, chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley...
...adding their expertise and long-established relationships to the equation. "You want to be the one place small-business owners go, because once you have them you want to suck them dry," says Shore. BizBuyer CEO Louvat believes that only exchanges offering a range of services will thrive. "Like Wal-Mart, the one-stop shop is the wave of the future for exchanges," he says. Others disagree. When Demandline CEO Patrick Burns founded his company this year, he made a calculated decision to offer only services. "Telephone carriers pay just one penny for a call and charge 10[cents...