Shares of some retailers fell before the opening bell with surprisingly bad sales numbers during the crucial holiday period.
The only good thing about Motel 6 is its potential value as a Cornell case study about the direct relationship between bad hotel sales and marketing and bad hotel security.
Other brighter points are that where HMV has refitted its stores so that they contain many more high-value technology items, such as tablets, and electronic stuff, the sales decline isn't as bad - sales in those stores are about four or five percentage points better (or not as ghastly) as in older-format stores.
After all, just how bad do sales have to be to kill a project mere weeks into its retail launch?
But March's sales slide was not as bad as expected after the sales disaster in February, and it could be that, war and all, car sales have bottomed out.
And, of course, tighter inventory and lower sales are bad news for many in the real estate industry who depend on sales.
Kingfisher blamed weak consumer confidence, unfavourable currency exchange rates, and bad UK weather hitting sales of "seasonal products".
Now to another ailing wing of the entertainment industry. 2007 has been a particularly bad year for record sales, especially hip-hop.
It allows you to hand-wave weak sales or bad reviews and blame outside factors like pirates or server failures in the event the game struggles.
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The company warned shortly after the New Year that a bad season of holiday sales will lead to lower than expected adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization.
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Samsung didn't do too bad either, increasing sales by 18.6 percent year-on-year thanks to its Galaxy range (although it's important to note this figure is for total phone sales, not just smartphones).
While sluggish sales are bad news for the auto and machinery industries, they are good news for inflation, which has been climbing steadily since August, 2009, reaching 5.5 percent in May, its highest level in three years.
Good for sales, but bad if the company ever wants to really get creative with some new IPs.
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This year Branson folded his struggling U.K. apparel line, Virgin Clothing, citing lackluster sales in a bad retail climate.
If this trend continues and more celebrities share their exclusives via social media, it will further impact celebrity newsstand sales in a bad way.
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To be blunt, a sales tax cartel is bad news for tax policy and bad news for privacy.
Its housing market has gone from bad to worse, with slow sales of existing homes and falling prices.
Best Buy holiday sales were not as bad as some investors had feared.
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Leonard Lauder coined the idea of a Lipstick Index a decade ago to show how lipstick sales rise in a bad economy.
Furthermore, the rebound in sales after all the bad press does show that consumers are willing to buy Toyotas if the price is right.
What about executives who learn a piece of bad news, say when the sales manager tells them a major customer just canceled his order?
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But the losers, owing to bad advice, company restrictions on sales, ignorance or greed didn't sell before the end of the year--or before their companies' stock bombed.
For its part, Vancl has faced a barrage of bad publicity over delayed deliveries and slowing sales.
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Unfortunately, in the currently horrid business environment, anything that limits sales is likely to be bad news.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released its February existing home-sales report today with some bad news today.
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The fall in sales was still not as bad as analysts had been expecting and Morrisons' shares rose 1% in early trading in London.
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