I wish I could say that this holiday season has felt as cheerful as usual. But the emptiness in New York's streets and stores both on December 24th and 26th merely amplified the depressing retail statistics. Eager sales assistants hawked their marked-down wares with an enthusiasm bordering on desperation. "I can hold any item for you at sixty per cent off for two weeks," one woman told me.
Her sales-pitch pushed me out of her store empty-handed and frightened. If no...
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