Steve Baker
Steve Baker
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They have been very aggressive about getting share and getting shelf space. We haven't seen a lot from Intel.
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It represented something that we believed to be a piece of Americana pop culture.
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There's a huge amount of demand defined by lower prices and growth in broadband and wireless networks. Consumers in the U.S. are adding PCs to their home inventory and finding new and different ways to use them.
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It's the whole function of how you get your money back. You don't just get it from the gate. You get it through extended stays in hotel rooms. People who plan to come when something is new, they'll get them. Now it'll take an extra half-day to see everything, and they'll get that extra night in the hotel.
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It's not the products -- it's the business model,
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They advertised that if you gave them $250 a month upfront, that your money would end up making $10,000 a month,
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Another thing about back-to-school is that the marketing push from retailers is getting earlier and earlier. It used to start beginning of August, but now we're seeing it as early as mid-July.
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Back-to-school tends to be a very different buying season than others -- much more focused on needs than wants. Productivity products are the big sellers because the money is still coming from Mom and Dad.
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Sales in the first-half of this year have been pretty strong. But one of the biggest issues is the tough year-over-year comparisons.
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These attractions can open in six months, but it's questionable whether there will be any tourists there by then. It's going to be years before the New Orleans tourist industry comes back. Once engineers get inside a lot of those buildings, they'll discover damage that wasn't visible. A lot of buildings will have to be torn down or completely rebuilt.
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More and more of the scam artists we deal with are outside the United States. It's especially a problem with the Internet, ... because there really is an international component to it.
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Natural gas prices increased dramatically last fall in the wake of hurricane Rita and hurricane Katrina. Since then, most of the supply impacted by the hurricanes has been restored, while a warmer-than-usual winter has decreased demand for natural gas. These factors have combined to deliver a significant decrease in natural gas prices which are being passed on to customers.
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With some of the refineries now shut down in the Houston area and their workers evacuated, we are pulling from operations east of the area,
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We are employing lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina and trying to take the steps now that will help us get back up and running depending on the impact,