Walmart has rolled back its rollbacks. Earlier this year, the retailer tried to spark sluggish U.S. sales by lowering its prices — already bargains — even further. One analyst called it "an initiative that screams: Price! Price! Price!" These rollbacks, as they are known in Walmartspeak and in the company's advertising, were intended to overwhelm the shopper. In May, according to one shopping website, the price of a 40-oz. bottle of Heinz ketchup, which had been $2.42, ...

When the political activist Al Sharpton pivoted from his war against bigmouth radio man Don Imus to a war on bad-mouth gangsta rap, the instinct among older music fans was to roll their eyes and yawn. Ten years ago, another activist, C. Delores Tucker, launched a very similar campaign to clean up rap music. She focused on Time Warner , whose subsidiary Interscope was home to hard-core rappers Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur. In 1995 Tucker succeeded in forcing Time ...

I'm walking up to a starbucks with Howard Schultz when we spot a barista standing in the parking lot, passing 11 cups of coffee through a car window. "I've never seen that," says Schultz, who took over Starbucks in 1987 and transformed it from a six-shop seller of beans into a thread that runs through our social tapestry. He asks the barista what she's doing. She says the drive-through order was so large she decided to bring it out. Schultz ...

For Net-a-Porter, a London-based e-tailer of luxury-brand women's wear, the Great Recession wasn't even a speed bump. "We actually outperformed our own business plan. Sales were exceptional," says Natalie Massenet, the company's American founder and executive chairman. Its sales soared 53% in 2008. That recession-be-damned kind of growth prompted Swiss luxury-goods conglomerate Richemont, which already owned a third of the company, to buy the rest in a deal last April that valued it at $568 million at the time. In ...

Majid wants to show me a negligee. It's on sale, and comes with a striped thong. When I demur, he eagerly shows me a frilly lace concoction in yellow. Quickly appraising my figure, enveloped in a black abaya, he ventures a guess: "D cup?" Without waiting for an answer, he trots over to a wall lined with lace and satin. The push-up bras are especially popular, he informs me. And the matching panties are three for the ...

When the economy ran out of gas a few years ago and Detroit went cap in hand to Washington, motor-sports leviathan Chevrolet cut all but two of its 13 racing programs. The first survivor, NASCAR, was expected to make the cut. The other, the much lesser known American Le Mans Series , not so much. But there was a solid rationale. "Corvette sales tracked directly to customer leads at ALMS races doubled from 2005 to 2009," says John Fitzpatrick, Chevrolet Performance ...

Not for many years has a Christmas season begun with so many tidings of spreading discomfort and lack of joy about the U.S. economy. Already racked by a devastating double-digit inflation, the nation is now also plunging deeper into a recession that seems sure to be the longest and could be the most severe since World War II. Consumers who a few weeks ago worried mostly about rising prices now fear for their jobs and incomes as well. For many ...

Preliminary data indicates Black Friday sales got off to a roaring start this year, with consumers shopping earlier and online sales increasing significantly over last year. Retailers across the board reported strong crowds early Friday, with high-definition televisions, laptops, winter coats and the popular toy Zhu-Zhu pets among the hottest items. "There were bargain-hungry shoppers out there, and retailers really did pull out all the stops for people," says Kathy Grannis, a spokesperson for the National Retail Federation, ...

Preliminary data indicates Black Friday sales got off to a roaring start this year, with consumers shopping earlier and online sales increasing significantly over last year. Retailers across the board reported strong crowds early Friday, with high-definition televisions, laptops, winter coats and the popular toy Zhu-Zhu pets among the hottest items. "There were bargain-hungry shoppers out there, and retailers really did pull out all the stops for people," says Kathy Grannis, a spokesperson for the National Retail Federation, ...

Ads for "Bernie Madoff Auction" sales have been popping up around the country in recent weeks, getting the word out in such places as Columbus, Ohio, and Charleston, S.C., by placing big stickers on the front page of local newspapers. The ads begin: "Due to losses caused by Bernie Madoff" and then detail such treasures as original art by Peter Max, Salvador Dali and Norman Rockwell — as well as Rolex watches and "other flashy items" — that are ...