Music Stores Facing Tough Holiday Sales
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LOS ANGELES  - The employee at the  front door of the Apple Store in the Grove shopping center in  Los Angeles was smiling broadly late Friday afternoon. It was  the day after Thanksgiving, the store was swarming with  customers and, he said, sales of iPod digital music players  were doing very well.
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The current holiday season must have brought a smile on Steve Jobâs face. Their music player is selling like hot cakes with shops and stores running out of iPod and iTunes is selling music like there is no tomorrow.
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With less than two weeks of shopping left until Christmas, the nation&#39;s malls and stores stepped up discounts over the weekend, but business appeared to be mixed, according to analysts.
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With four days left before Christmas, retailers are still waiting for a holiday shopping blitz -- and beginning to worry they won't hit sales projections for the season.
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Retailers expected Apple Computer Inc.&#39;s iPod music player to be a hot item this holiday season but are still struggling to keep up with demand.
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Economic woes have dumped a lump of coal on the nation's online retailers, which, like their brick-and-mortar rivals, have struggled with an uneven holiday business following a strong official start to the season.
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The holiday mood at independent music retailers is one of cautious optimism, despite Nielsen SoundScan numbers showing that overall sales at U.S. indie merchants were down 7.1% from last year as of Nov. 28.
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Lately, the company's retail operation has been lagging behind sales of its locations.
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Holiday shoppers rushed the doors of apparel retailers, including Aeropostale Inc. , over the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend, anxious to snag some of the best deals of the year, but the sharp discounts could hurt the companies' bottom lines.
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Retailers may be in for a blue Christmas this year as worries about soaring energy prices, consumers' cost-consciousness and a warmer December than last year make for lackluster holiday sales, retail analysts said.
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Not a bad start. That goes for  both the holiday selling season and the return to duty by a  certain recording artist.
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In spite of a burst of Friday spending, the holiday shopping season got off to a sluggish start, forcing retailers to reassess their strategies for luring buyers. Slow sales reported by three retail sales trackers on Tuesday were blamed on higher fuel costs and an overall lack of confidence in the economy.
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NEW YORK (Billboard) - Last minute release-date changes for  three superstar albums have made nervous retailers even more  anxious about their prospects during the holiday season.
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Merchants are slashing post-holiday prices even deeper, hoping to squeeze the last bit of sales from a shopping season that many retailers are finding unimpressive.
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As computers and hand-held electronic gadgets eats into sales, this holiday season promises to be an especially competitive one for toymakers.
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Music, so the maxim goes, soothes the savage beast. Now one convenience store chain is putting the saying to the test by trying to ward off potential troublemakers at its shops with classical music.
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The nation's retailers had a disappointing start to the holiday season, reporting sluggish sales for November after a much hoped-for surge in Thanksgiving weekend business failed to materialize.