On November 24th, a few days after the Japanese-owned Yaohan department store chain in Hong Kong went bust, word hit the streets that the St Honore Cake Shop chain was about to follow suit.

ECONOMIST: Run, run, run

Digging a hole WE TOOK STEWART ENTERPRISES chief Joseph Henican at his word when he said his New Orleans funeral-service chain would avoid problems plaguing competitors (June 14).

FORBES: Follow Through

But it's a measure of the dominance of oral culture over the printed word both here and in the rest of Africa that Ivory Coast's leading book shop chain says it's only sold four thousand copies of Houphouet Boigny's Imaginary Plots.

BBC: Political thriller wows African readers