Word: flatly
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...National Federation of Independent Business offers similar gloomy findings: its latest data indicate 86% of small businesses surveyed reported that earnings either fell or were flat in the past three months and 82% posted either flat or lower sales. Over the next three months, 21% plan to cut workers and 32% expect to reduce inventory...
There is reason to believe such eye-popping spending can continue. As more regions of China's vast hinterland join in its amazing economic boom, more and more of the country's 1.3 billion people can afford cars, refrigerators and flat-panel TVs items not too long ago considered luxuries for a fortunate few. Chen Baogen, Xi'an's mayor, says his city of eight million had lagged behind towns on the export-oriented coast, but now incomes are growing to the point where consumption is taking off. In the first nine months of 2009, retail sales in the city...
...hold the line as they face a showdown with frugal shoppers. "Inventories are in good shape, but sales may suffer more than we thought as retailers are forced to blink on promotions to drive traffic," says Jeff Black, director at Barclays Capital, who expects holiday sales to be flat with year-ago levels. (See 20 tech gadgets...
...biggest bargains and heaviest competition on Black Friday will be in electronics, where retailers such as Best Buy, Walmart and Target are gearing up to offer "door buster" sales for items ranging from flat-screen TVs, smart phones and home-theater systems to laptops and e-readers. Aside from those predawn door crashers, regular shoppers can expect discounts of up to 60% on certain products on Black Friday, says Vitelli...
...only one who comes from a relatively liberal state. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, for example, all have strong reservations about a government-run alternative to private insurers. But Lieberman is the only one who has stated flat-out that he would join a GOP filibuster of the bill to prevent it from getting an up-or-down vote. And unlike his other moderate Democratic colleagues, he has claimed he's not even open to the compromise proposal that Republican Senator Olympia Snowe has been pushing - a so-called trigger mechanism whereby...