While some other merchants play down their preppiness, J. Crew revels in it.
If so, it may allow the big brands to overcharge, pushing merchants' profits down and consumer prices up.
More recently, that figure dropped to less than ten per cent, and credit-card-transaction fees for merchants came down, too.
Only months, or even weeks, after some well-known Web merchants shut down, collectors are already paying hundreds of dollars on eBay for mementos like eToys stock certificates and boxes of T-shirts and other trinkets bearing the names of Kozmo, Webvan, Pets.com and other defunct mainstays of the e-commerce craze.
[C9.] Dot-Coms Already Collector's Items Only months, or even weeks, after some well-known Web merchants shut down, collectors are paying hundreds of dollars on eBay for mementos like eToys stock certificates and boxes of T-shirts and other trinkets bearing the names of Kozmo, Webvan, Pets.com and other defunct mainstays of the e-commerce craze.
Consumers get the convenience, while merchants cut down on fraud, move customers through checkout lines faster and maybe even get them to spend more freely.
DLJ Merchant put down $88 million in cash for 72% of Charles River.
If a gewgaw ordinarily goes for $2, you needn't pay $200 to be virtuous, but you ought not try to beat the merchant down to 20 cents, either.
The retail group was weak Monday, with Best Buy, the electronics merchant, down 5.3percentt, at $37.66, after Goldman Sachs downgraded it to neutral.
In Darfur, warlords formerly allied with the regime — among them the infamous "Janjaweed" militias of an earlier era — have taken to raiding markets, shaking down merchants and preying on defenseless civilians.
