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Eighty- five percent of those polled for the NPD study said they were concerned about not being able to try on the clothing before buying it; return policies were an issue for 70 percent.
So far the retailers that are most successful at receiving online sales are specialty sites that focus just on clothing, like or , according to NPD. Sites like Comcast's or Federated's , which have many product categories, may attract more visitors. But nearly three-quarters of consumers polled for the study said they had made their most recent online apparel purchase at a specialty site.
The card's in the mail
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The Thanksgiving turkey isn't just on the dinner table any more. It's showing up on greeting cards, especially from businesses. As usual, they just want to beat the competition. Cards wishing traditional messages like "happy holidays" and "happy new year" now are being mailed before Thanksgiving, sometimes with fall scenes and harvest symbols replacing wintry landscapes and Christmas wreaths. "What better time than Thanksgiving to say we're thinking of you and are thankful for your business or support in the past year?" asked Jody Zitsman, executive vice president of , which sells holiday cards online to businesses and individuals.
The nation's greeting card companies are seeing an increase in orders for Thanksgiving cards, as well as earlybird orders for traditional holiday cards. And while official numbers are not available, anecdotal evidence is probably in your mailbox. 's Thanksgiving card sales are up 200 percent from last year and now represent 25 percent of the company's holiday cards sales, said Zitsman, who declined to give exact sales figures.
For your next vacation
MONTROSE, Colo. (NYT) -- The United States' 55th national park was created last month when President Clinton signed legislation creating Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in southwest Colorado, about 250 miles from Denver. It is the first new national park since Death Valley and Joshua Tree were established in 1994. The centerpiece of the new park is the dramatic Black Canyon, whose dark- gray walls of schist and gneiss were carved over a period of 2 million years by the Gunnison River. The canyon plunges as much as 2,660 feet, with one sheer drop measuring 2,200 feet. The narrowest point at the bottom is only 40 feet wide. Both the canyon and its rims are home to a variety of wildlife, including black bears, golden eagles and the endangered peregrine falcon.
Black Canyon was established as a national monument in 1933, and with its elevation to national park status, it acquires 10,000 more acres. Still, at 30,300 total acres, it is the fourth smallest national park, exceeding only the Hot Springs (Arkansas), Wind Cave (South Dakota) and Virgin Islands National Parks. Black Canyon gets 230,000 visitors a year, most of them during the summer. Many come for trout fishing on the Gunnison, but there is also hiking, Nordic skiing, camping (115 sites) and rock climbing. Facilities include a South Rim visitor center, which is open year round and offers food and ranger programs, and a North Rim ranger station, which is open during the summer only. Among the hiking trails are seven primitive routes down to the river.
The park's South Rim is 15 miles east of Montrose, and the North Rim 11 miles south of Crawford. The entrance fee is $7 a vehicle a week
The Van Allen Belt's the limit
LONDON (NYT) -- Space tourism will materialize faster than most people think, with short flights as soon as 2004 and extended visits possible within 20 years. Howard Wolff, marketing director for an American architectural firm, Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo, told an audience last week at the World Travel Forum in London that his firm is working on designs for a 100-bed orbital hotel that he hopes will be open for business by 2017, featuring artificial gravity to protect queasy guests from "space sickness." In the interim, and for the first time since Pan American World Airways stopped adding names to a half-serious space flight waiting list 30 years ago, it is now possible to book a trip beyond the atmosphere. "Right now two companies are offering suborbital space flights in the neighborhood of $100,000 a trip to experience a few minutes of weightlessness," Wolff said, adding that he expected prices to fall once flights became routine.
Holiday dining etiquette
PHOENIX (JR) -- Whether you're dining with family or with business associates, making a good impression is a requisite for success. Knowing the basics of protocol will help you succeed in almost any environment -- business or social. With the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays around the corner, Corpedia Training Technologies of Phoenix has prepared the following list of 10 tips for avoiding dining faux pas:
* No "napkin origami," please. Don't mistake your folded napkin creation for a centerpiece. Always place it in your lap after the host or guest of honor has placed his/her own napkin. Never shake it out, snap it or use it as a handkerchief.
* It isn't "first come, first served." Always be patient and wait until everyone has been served. A common and embarrassing mistake is to start eating before the host or hostess has had a chance to say grace or present a toast.
* Bend at the knees. Always stand-up when anyone approaches your table or new guests are seated. The La-Z-Boy syndrome indicates that you simply cannot be bothered to stand up and is a sure way to make any guest feel unwelcome.
* Don't be a food critic. This is especially true when you are a guest, as it can be insulting to your host or hostess. Also, never address your server as boy, son, honey, garcon or dear.
* Add salt or insult? Never season your food before tasting it. Seasoning your food will show a lack of confidence in the chef and is a surefire way to insult your host.
* Soak in the toast mentally, not physically. Never drink to a toast given to you. This is akin to patting yourself on the back. Instead, politely acknowledge the toast and thank the speaker once he or she has finished the toast.
* Messy Marvin should be neither seen nor heard. Slurping, smacking or otherwise eating food in a noticeably audible or visible manner is never pleasant for those who are present. Also, never talk with food in your mouth or on your utensil. The last thing you want to do is eject food at the person to whom you are speaking.
* Let it ring, let it ring, let it ring. Avoid taking calls during meals, particularly on cell phones. Accepting calls while in the company of guests serves as a veritable slap in the face. If you absolutely must take a call, kindly excuse yourself away from the table.
* No poking unless choking. In most cases, dislodging stubborn food particles from your teeth is forbidden at the table. Discretion is key, so excuse yourself and leave the room. Picking with any implement, whether it's a napkin, toothpick, finger or dental floss, can repulse your dining companions.
* Always remember to thank the host or hostess. Showing gratitude is the key to being a gracious guest. A handshake and a polite "thank you" provide a sufficient close to the occasion.
Right up her alley
NEW YORK (NYT) -- Haven't seen enough of Meg Whitman, the high- profile chief executive of online auctioneer eBay? If profiles in Business Week, Glamour and Vanity Fair left you begging for more, maybe you should consider bowling. Earlier this month, Butterfield & Butterfield, the old-time San Francisco auction house that was recently acquired by eBay, auctioned off a bowling date with Whitman and two eBay employees. Twenty-nine bids were submitted over 10 days to raise money for the San Francisco chapter of the American Red Cross. The first bid was a mere $75, but, like everything related to the Internet, the price soared, to $11,600. The lucky bidder? A group from Yahoo's auction team paid for the fun of dropping pins and what the auction's description called a "less than swanky meal" with the eBay group. With their combined billions, they might as well just buy the alley.
Seeking a quick burn
NEW YORK (NYT) -- One of the hottest must-have devices turning up in personal computers is the recordable CD drive, or in the parlance of PC mavens, a CD burner. Looking much like standard CD-ROM drives, the devices, which usually can record both rewritable discs (CD-RW) and write-once discs (CD-R), are a dependable way to make or copy audio CDs and CD-ROMs or to back up computer files. The only drawback has been speed; they do a slow burn. But Creative Labs says its latest drive is a relative speed demon.
Called the CD-RW Blaster 8432, the drive promises to record up to 60 minutes' worth of sound (or 545 megabytes of data) in about nine minutes or less, according to a Creative Labs spokesmen. That represents a 30 percent increase in speed over the company's earlier generation of drives. The drive costs $.
But those speeds can be achieved only in the drive's write-once mode. Writing data onto rewritable discs, those that can be erased and reused, is considerably slower.
Shifting soda strategy
WHITE PLAINS, . (NYT) -- Following the trend set by Coca-Cola earlier this month, PepsiCo plans to raise the price it charges its bottlers for concentrate by nearly 7 percent next year. The increase means that both soft-drink giants are committed to a shift in strategy that rejects the volume-at-any-cost model that has been in place the last three years in favor of improved profit margins with less volume. Many investors have been confused by the change in strategy, which came with little fanfare from the companies.
Pepsi Bottling Group, the bottler that was spun off from PepsiCo earlier this year, made the announcement on Friday. Consumers can expect to pay an average of a cent more for each can of Pepsi, said a spokesman, Larry Jabbonsky, although prices on individual packages will rise at a far higher rate. Analysts said 12-packs of cans, which had been selling for $ in many supermarkets, will rise to $ or $ after the increase takes effect. "We think it's a workable increase," Jabbonsky said, adding, "PepsiCo's commitment to providing more aggressive marketing support is absolutely key to the equation."
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