This will bring in changes in education, health care, retail and restaurant experiences, automobiles, etc, as we stop thinking of these things as expensive computers and start thinking of them as replacements for paper.

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Core Retail Sales figures which do not include automobiles came out even worse with a contraction figure of 0.5% for the same period.

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Despite a flurry of last-minute shoppers lured by the deep discounts, total retail sales, excluding automobiles, fell over the year-earlier period by 5.5% in November and 8% in December through Christmas Eve, according to MasterCard Inc.

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