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Retailers Scramble After Lackluster Holiday Sales
The 2012 holiday season may have been the worst for retailers since the financial crisis, with sales growth far below expectations, forcing many to offer massive post-Christmas discounts in hopes of shedding excess inventory.
While chains like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Gap Inc. are thought to have done well, analysts expect much less from the likes of Barnes & Noble Inc. and J. C. Penney Co. ...
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Mid-Holiday Shopping Lull Pushing Retailers to Add Promotions
The shopping lull that typically sets in after Black Friday weekend and eases just before Christmas is becoming more pronounced this year as economic uncertainty -- including an impending fiscal cliff -- is keeping shoppers at bay.
Faced with still needing to make their holiday sales numbers, brick-and-mortar retailers are stepping up their promotions to deal with the lackluster customer demand and rising competition from their traditional rivals and heavy competition from online merchants. ...
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Shopping's Great Age Divide
Younger Generations Approach Holidays With Smartphone Tactics; Mom and Dad Clip Coupons
The Ultican family has always approached Christmas shopping on overdrive, piling dozens of presents under a small forest of decorated trees. But the Ulticans and their four children wrangle the annual extravaganza in different ways, underscoring the challenge facing retailers as technological changes transform Americans' buying rituals. ...
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Early Holiday Sales Pay Off, for Now
Retailers See Strong Weekend Traffic but Worry Spending Could Falter; Online Booms
Retailers reported a big jump in consumer spending over the Thanksgiving weekend as shoppers flocked to stores, snapped up online discounts and, according to some merchants, paid repeat visits to the mall.
But the overall increase wasn't as robust as last year's. And some indicators showed a decline in spending at stores on Black Friday itself, leading to questions about whether retailers' new tactics are simply shifting spending to different days and sales outlets. ...
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Small Business Saturday is a Big Hit
There was nothing small this year about Small Business Saturday sales.
Small Business Saturday, when consumers are encouraged to support their local small businesses two days after Thanksgiving, gets bigger every year, says Small Business Administrator Karen Mills. ...
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Chase Has Finger on the Holiday Pulse
The retail industry is awash with forecasts and projections during the holidays, but a near real-time indicator from Chase reveals how shoppers are actually behaving.
Data culled so far from Oct. 29-Nov. 15 shows that this year's holiday season is off to a lively start, with year-over-year e-commerce sales volume up 12.3% and in-store growth up 1%. ...
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Bring Out the Holly: Holiday Forecasts Bullish
The outlook for the coming holiday season seems to look brighter every day. Just out is Brand Keys survey of some 16,200 consumers, who say they are going to spend 6% more than they did last year. That jump is twice as big as the prior year.
And BDO has released its poll of CMOs of leading retailers -- a group that is forecasting a 4.7% gain, its biggest bump since 2007. ...
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ShopperTrak Names 10 Busiest Shopping Days of Coming Holiday Season
Black Friday will be the single biggest sales and foot traffic day of this holiday season, followed by Saturday, Dec. 22, according to ShopperTrak, the world's largest counter and analyzer of retail foot traffic.
With the greatest possible number of shopping days -- 32 -- lying between Black Friday and Christmas this year, ShopperTrak predicts that national retail sales will rise 3.3% (over last year) during the peak holiday shopping months of November and December; retail foot traffic will increase 2.8%. ...
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Holiday Spending Up; Online Research Significant
According to PriceGrabber's first winter holiday shopping survey, 50% of consumers plan to spend the same amount during the 2012 winter holiday shopping season that they spent last year, up slightly from 48% in 2011. Twelve percent plan to spend more, a positive increase compared with 7% last year, while 54% expect to spend $500 or more. ...
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Retailers Push Aggressive Deals to Lure Stingy Holiday Shoppers
Retailers are rolling out aggressive sales earlier this holiday season to lure consumers, who are expected to keep a tight grip on their wallets.
Average shoppers are projected to spend only $9 more this season than the $740 they shelled out last year, according to a survey by BIGinsight. The National Retail Federation is predicting sales growth of 4.1 percent, compared with a 5.6 percent rise last year. ...
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More Marketers Invite Themselves to Thanksgiving Dinner
Lured by Aggressive Retailers, Consumers are Increasingly Shopping on Turkey Day
Drumstick, cranberry sauce, coupon?
Consumers will be served a heaping helping of shopping opportunities with their turkey this Thanksgiving, once a day reserved for family, food and football. More bricks-and-mortar stores than ever are expected to be open for business on Thanksgiving, and email-marketing firm Responsys said 80% of major retailers will send messages on the holiday this year, up from just 45% in 2009. ...
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Holiday Sales of Consumer Electronics Expected to Rise Slightly
Shoppers plan to spend about $252 on consumer electronics this holiday season, a 2.4% increase from last year's $246, according to the Consumer Electronics Association's CEA's 19th annual CE Holiday Purchase Patterns Study, released at the association's Industry Forum in San Francisco this week. ...
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NRF Predicts a 4.1 Percent Rise in Holiday Sales
Americans are expected to spend more during what's traditionally the busiest shopping season of the year, but they're not exactly ready to shop 'til they drop like they have been in the past two years.
The National Retail Federation, the nation's largest retail trade group, said Tuesday that it expects sales during the winter holiday shopping period in November and December to rise 4.1 percent this year. That's more than a percentage point lower than the growth in each of the past two years, and the smallest increase since 2009 when sales were up just 0.3 percent. ...
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Retailers Make More Holiday Hires
Several retailers plan to hire more seasonal staffers than last year in preparation for an incoming flurry of holiday shoppers and expected increase in sales, according to merchants and at least two reports out this month from consulting groups.
While only a handful of retailers have announced specific holiday hiring plans, 36% plan to hire more seasonal employees than in 2011, shows a survey of 14 major U.S. retailers by consulting firm Hay Group; 57% will hire about the same as last year. ...
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Holiday Sales Expected to Grow as Much as 4%
Deloitte's annual holiday forecast, released on Tuesday, predicts that sales will increase between 3.5% and 4%, as the economy's health and the presidential election take center stage among consumers this fall. ...
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Reading Holiday Tea Leaves
Forecasters Predict Higher Sales This Christmas; Retailers Say Flexibility is Key
Predicting how strong or weak holiday sales will be is a time-honored tradition, but it is far from an exact science.
Prominent forecasters over the past eight years have regularly overshot or underestimated actual results by a percentage point or more. Predictions for this year's holiday shopping are beginning to come in, and, for now, modest gains are expected, but economic certainty evaporated in the last recession. ...
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As School Bells Ring, Retailers Start Listening for Sleigh Bells
U.S. retailers expect another solid showing this holiday season, as summertime surveys and shipments show that companies are placing big orders even as some remain cautious about the economy.
A report from the National Retail Federation showed that increases are expected in imports during August, September and October, critical months when chains get their merchandise from overseas in time to stock their holiday shelves.< ...
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Higher Holiday Sales Come with Caveat
Holiday retail sales appear on track to be somewhere between ho-ho-ho and ho-hum, raising the prospect that the economic expansion is still struggling to reach top form.
Some stores, including J. Crew and Bloomingdale's, were offering after-Christmas discounts of 75% or more, which were more reminiscent of the recession than a recovery. ...
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Drug Stores on Holiday Offensive
As they do every holiday season, convenience store and drug store chains are positioning themselves as last-minute gift and holiday supply destinations.
Last week, Dallas-based 7-Eleven touted itself as a "great place to multi-task" for the holiday season. This week, drug store chains Walgreens and Rite Aid followed suit. ...
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Survey Says More Than 40% of Consumers Will Shop Last-Minute for Gifts
Survey data from PriceGrabber, an Experian company, said that many consumers will continue to hit the stores through the final days leading up to Christmas.
Results from PriceGrabber's fourth winter holiday shopping survey found that 41% of consumers plan to shop between Dec. 21 and Dec. 24 for holiday gifts. ...
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What's Hot This Season for Gifts? Retro and Quirky
Jewelry sales are up, but so are book sales. Superhero footie pajamas and racy lingerie are also big sellers, at least for certain demographics.
It's going to be a very merry -- if not mystifying -- Christmas when it comes to often-discretionary gift buying this year. ...
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Shoppers Waiting for Black Friday -- Round 2
Shoppers who were out in full force on Black Friday may not walk retail aisles again until just before Christmas -- when retailers are expected to heavily discount merchandise -- according to the latest America's Research Group/UBS "Christmas Forecast."
The nationwide holiday retail survey found that holiday shoppers have fallen squarely into two camps -- early finishers and late buyers -- and both are driven by the prospect of unprecedented retail deals, or at least hopes of finding them. ...
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How Marketers Get Inside Your Head to Get You to Stuff Your Stockings
With a Study of Seasonal Psychology, Brands Find the Right Mix of Price and Emotion in Ad Messages
Consumers claim they're keeping a close eye on holiday budgets, so how to explain this year's record-breaking post-Thanksgiving retail sales?
The secret is landing on the right marketing message, but it's no simple feat. For retailers, planning for the Christmas ads just now airing kicked off months ago. ...
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Holiday Travel Expected to be Up This Year
It's that time of year again, and more Americans are saying they will take a trip of at least one night during this holiday season, a recent survey found.
Nearly 60 percent of adults were confident they would take a holiday trip this season. That's up from 50 percent last year and more comparable with 2009 levels (61 percent), according to a poll conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of Mondial Assistance USA, which sells travel insurance and assistance services. ...
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For a Weekend, at Least, Retailers See Record Numbers
Spurred by aggressive promotions from retailers, American consumers opened their wallets over the holiday weekend in a way they had not since before the recession, setting records in sales and traffic.
The National Retail Federation said Sunday that spending per shopper surged 9.1 percent over last year -- the biggest increase since 2006 -- to an average of almost $400 a customer. In all, 6.6 percent more shoppers visited stores on the Thanksgiving weekend than last year. ...
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Pet Owners Make No Bones About Presents
Just over half of American pet owners will buy gifts for their pets this holiday season, and they'll spend an average of $46 on their animals, with toys and treats topping the list, according to a new AP-Petside.com poll.
Sixty-eight percent of pets getting gifts can look forward to a toy, 45 percent to food or another treat, 8 percent new bedding, 6 percent clothing, 3 percent a leash, collar or harness and 3 percent new grooming products, the poll showed. (Some pets will get more than one gift.) ...
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Gift Buyers Like Local Mom-and-Pop Shops' Unique Choices
Economic concerns linger, but mom-and-pop retailers say they finally have some cheer for this holiday shopping season.
Nearly half are more optimistic about holiday sales than last year, according to a new survey of 792 small retailers by online small-business community Manta. Four in 10 say they already have better sales compared with last fall. ...
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More Retailers Attack at 'Black Midnight'
Holiday shoppers, say hello to Black Midnight.
Best Buy Co. is joining the list of big store chains opening at midnight after Thanksgiving this year in hopes of getting a jump on the competition, following recent announcements by Target Corp., Macy's Inc. and Kohl's Corp. ...
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Retailers Staffing Up for the Holidays
Santa is feeling generous about retail holiday jobs this season, but slightly less giving than last year.
The retail sector plans to add about 600,000 seasonal staffers between October and early January, down from 627,600 last year, said John Challenger, chief executive officer of the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. ...
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ShopperTrak Identifies 10 Busiest Holiday Shopping Days
Week Before Christmas Holds Five of Season's Strongest Sales and Foot-Traffic Days
With national retail sales expected to increase only slightly throughout the entire holiday season, just 10 days will make or break the period for retailers, according to ShopperTrak, the respected provider of retail foot traffic counting, managed services and business analytics.
"Since Christmas falls on different calendar days each year, the shift impacts which days are the busiest. Some change in ranking or drop off completely," says ShopperTrak co-founder Bill Martin. ...
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Merchants to Make Merry with Holiday Promotions, Not Bigger Discounts
Retailers already are getting into the holiday spirit in anticipation that shoppers will spend more than they did last year.
But you won't see many sales pop up earlier -- or be any bigger -- than last season, though retailers will be enticing online shoppers with more promotions like free-shipping deals and giveaways, according to the National Retail Federation. ...
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Holiday Shoppers Plan to Buy More Gifts for Themselves
Merry Christmas to me!
Holiday shoppers plan to take advantage of the discounts that come along with the Christmas holiday season to stock up on items for themselves, according to the findings a new survey.
Holiday shoppers plan to spend less on holiday gifts and seasonal merchandise this year -- about $704 per person, compared to $719 last year. But they will spend more money on non-gift items for themselves and their family, according to the findings of the survey conducted by BigResearch on behalf of retail industry trade group, the National Retail Federation. ...
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Holiday Forecasters Have Their Work Cut Out for Them This Year
The first round of Christmas sales forecasts are trickling in, and retailers are once again wringing their hands about the biggest shopping period of the year.
Most merchants placed orders for holiday goods in the spring, when there was still plenty of hope that the economy was on the mend. But since then the combination of the first-ever U.S. credit downgrade, the European debt crisis and widespread talk of a double-dip recession has squelched that optimism.
Consumer behavior has never been easy to discern. But experts say it is getting harder to predict in the long aftermath of the recession. ...
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Many Retail Industry Analysts Predict a Good Holiday Season
As retailers head into the all-important holiday season, they have reason to be optimistic: Months of solid sales are widely expected to carry through to the end of the year, when shoppers are most likely to open their wallets.
Positive holiday performance could have a far-reaching effect. With consumer spending accounting for about 70% of the nation's economic activity, robust sales could breathe life into what has been a sluggish year so far for the broader economy.
Many industry analysts are predicting a good -- but not great -- holiday season. ...
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Shoppers Spending More in Christmas Countdown
The malls were packed last weekend, and in many places it's beginning to look a little like a pre-recession Christmas.
Americans spent more than last year on clothing, luxury goods and even furniture, delivering healthy gains across the board Oct. 31 through Saturday, according to MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse, which tracks spending across all transactions including cash. ...
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Majority of Holiday Shoppers Still Have Gifts to Buy
Hard to pass up holiday sales helped motivate holiday shoppers a little earlier this year, though most agree they still have quite a dent to make in their list. According to the National Retail Federation's 2010 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, the average person had completed 49.5 percent of their holiday shopping by the second week of December, up from 46.7 percent at same time last holiday season. ...
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Consumers Are Buying For Themselves This Christmas
Consumers are adding a very important name back to their holiday shopping lists this year: their own.
The percentage of shoppers who say they plan to indulge in a little something extra for themselves has risen four points since last year to more than 57 percent -- the biggest jump in at least six years, according to an industry survey. Sales of jewelry, apparel and consumer electronics are up so far this holiday season from last year, and experts attribute part of the boost to what has become known as "self-gifting." ...
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For Repeat Holiday Shopping Trips, Department Stores Rank First
Department stores -- specifically Kohl's, JCPenney and Macy's -- are where most shoppers said they would make extra trips to do holiday shopping this season.
That is according to the WSL Strategic Retail's report, How America Shops -- The Pulse of Shopping Life, which found that 79% of shoppers said they would consider making extra shopping trips to take advantage of a retailer's sale or coupon. And of those, 57% selected department stores Kohl's, JCP and Macy's as their preferred channels. ...
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Which Consumer Electronics Sold Best on Black Friday?
Portable MP3 players, video game consoles and accessories, and computers including notebooks and tablets were among the most popular electronics shoppers purchased this weekend, according to interim results from the Consumer Electronics Assn.'s Black Friday Survey. But despite the buzz surrounding stereo movies, the interim figures suggest that less than 5% of holiday shoppers bought 3DTVs. ...
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Robust Sales for Holiday Weekend
More Americans went shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend than in recent memory, and online shopping accounted for the highest percentage of the weekend's sales yet.
The average amount spent per person from Thursday to Sunday was about $365, more than a 6 percent increase over last year, according to a survey of about 4,300 Americans by the National Retail Federation, a trade group that reported results on Sunday afternoon. ...
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Main Street Offers Mall Alternative
In Ridgefield, Conn., Main Street is lined with independent boutiques and offers shoppers the quintessential "anti-mall" experience: a relaxing ambiance, unique gift items and attentive customer service.
But being far from the mall isn't always a plus during the holiday shopping season, when consumers flock to big-box stores offering deep discounts -- sales that small merchants often can't match. ...
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Holiday Shoppers Expected To Be Less 'Grinchy' This Year
There are signs the chill on holiday spending is beginning to thaw.
Consumers may not be giving gifts like it's 2006 again (before the Great Recession), but new surveys suggest some will spend a bit more and start giving presents that people want rather than simply need this year.
Think jewelry, rather than slippers and sweaters. ...
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Clothing Retailers Hoping for Green Christmas
The holiday sales forecast for clothing retailers is the merriest it's been in three years, but there still are reasons for merchants to have nightmares before Christmas, according to a panel of fashion and financial experts.
"Surprise, surprise -- there is fashion newness out there and it is selling," said David Wolfe, creative director of the Doneger Group consulting firm. ...
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Spending on Holiday Travel Expected to Increase This Year
Among the 39 percent of Americans who plan to travel this holiday season, almost one-third (30%) say they expect to spend more than last year according to the latest American Express Spending & Saving Tracker. On average, travelers plan to spend $460 per person with that figure jumping to $500 per person among young professionals and $560 among affluents. While most travelers will take to the roads and skies for Thanksgiving (19%) and Christmas (19%), one-tenth (10%) will take an off-peak trip before the end of the year and 6% will travel to ring in the New Year. ...
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For Marketers, Christmas Started Last Month
Now that Halloween is done, Madison Avenue is embarking on the mad dash to Dec. 25.
The sluggish economy is raising the stakes for the Christmas shopping season. Some retailers and marketers, worried that uncertainty among shoppers might increase as the weeks go by, hope to pull demand forward by moving up the start of their pitches. ...
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The Demographic to Target for Holiday CE Sales
Choosing the right marketing strategy can get complicated for even the most savvy consumer electronics retailer. The target customer during the upcoming holiday season, though, is clear: Any household earning more than $75,000 a year. ...
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Flood of Pent-Up Consumer Demand Predicted for Black Friday
Get out your coffee and your coupons. Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, is about to get bigger.
For the past several years, Black Friday has ranked as the largest shopping day of the year, in both sales and traffic. But analysts say a host of factors is converging to make it likely that Black Friday 2010 will set a record. ...
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Economy Still Impacting Shoppers, but Glimmers of Holiday Hope Appear
Shoppers to Spend on More Discretionary Items, Non-Gift Purchases
Though Americans are still operating with the recession in the back of their minds and many have fundamentally changed their shopping habits, some findings from NRF's first holiday survey imply consumers won't only be focusing on low prices and basic necessities this year. According to NRF's 2010 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, U.S. consumers plan to spend an average of $688.87 on holiday-related shopping, a slight rise from last year's $681.83. ...
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'Tis the Season for Decoration Purchases
The economy may still be frightful, but marketers of holiday decorations may find the fourth quarter delightful. With consumers poised to make an increased numbers of purchases of decorations for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, the marketer offering the right product in the right place may find the winter a welcome opportunity for sales. ...
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Consumers Celebrating Practicality This Holiday Season
Consumers Maintaining Family Traditions and Entering Holiday Shopping Season Equipped with Lists and Frugal Strategies
This year, 49 percent of consumers are heading into the holiday shopping season concerned about the economy. This and related sentiments are affecting how, where and when shoppers make their gift, and holiday-celebration related food and beverage purchases. ...
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Promotions Will Weigh On Mixed Holiday Outlook
Retail sales for the fourth quarter holiday period will be significantly better than a year ago, Kantar Retail forecasts. However, the holiday will feel weak compared with the relatively strong pace of retail sales growth in the first three quarters -- a pace inflated temporarily by economic stimulus and pent-up demand. ...
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