Other companies, including chocolate firm Thorntons, music store HMV and children's goods retailer Mothercare, announced shop closures.

BBC: UK retail sales stabilise in early summer sales

Dick's Sporting Goods Chief Edward W. Stack bought out his father, Dick Stack, when Dick's Sporting Goods was two stores and more of a bait-and-tackle shop reflecting his father's fishing passion.

FORBES: Magazine Article

But few of the 30, 000 Colombians who used to cross each day to shop do so now, because Venezuela's National Guard confiscates their goods when they recross the border, says Mr Uribe, the shopkeeper.

ECONOMIST: Hugo Ch��vez stamps out regional economic integration

Margin Deterioration: Generally, a flower shop's payroll should eat up 30% of sales, and the cost-of-goods-sold another 30%-33%.

FORBES: What You're Worth