Day's predecessor had increased the fixed component of store associate compensation, but there have been signs that Day is moving to diminish the fixed component and bolster incentive pay for store associates, particularly for moving higher-margin products like batteries.

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For small retailers, balloons are often an important component of the store's success, and many of these small businesses would not be able to survive without the revenue generated from balloons.

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But today Professor Andy Cooper and his team of chemists at the University of Liverpool in England are figuring out how it can help energy companies like BP or Shell store and transport methane gas, the principle component of natural gas.

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