Independent retailers who’ve had a successful holiday season say they took advantage of the fact that there are strengths in not being huge. Store owners report they were able to change pricing and other strategies quickly. Many offered customers more ...

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From kitschy ornaments to model train extravaganzas and a holiday song dedicated to bottom-feeding crustaceans, Baltimore’s unique brand of quirky creativity really shines at Christmas. For moviemaker John Waters, the city’s favorite offbeat son, the Yuletide season offers up a ...

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Christmas is the season of giving, and January the month of returns. UPS expects to deliver 1.3 million packages back to retailers on Jan. 5, celebrated by the delivery service, but no one else, as “National Returns Day.” Surging online ...

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Local shop offers a new ice cream flavor that plays off Jewish traditions for Christmas.

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NEW YORK — Some stores are ending the holiday shopping season the same way they began it — with round-the-clock, marathon shopping hours. Kohl’s for the first time is staying open for essentially five days straight, from 6 a.m. last ...

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NEW YORK — Sex toys. French films. Star Wars action figures. Erotic photos. What do these things have in common? They’re the gifts that keep on giving — about every month. Dozens of online subscription businesses have popped up offering ...

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Going small is getting big on Maryland’s main streets. In its fourth year, Small Business Saturday seems to be building momentum.

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NEW YORK — Last Thanksgiving Day, Kimberly Mudge Via’s mother, sister and nieces left in the middle of their meals to head for the mall. Now, Via says she’ll never host Thanksgiving dinner for her relatives again. “They barely finished,” ...

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NEW YORK — Apple CEO Tim Cook believes Santa’s sleigh will be loaded with iPads this Christmas, but a variety of competing tablets are sure to be along for the ride, too. Apple’s iPad Air, a thinner, lighter and faster-running ...

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NEW YORK — Will Washington be the Grinch who stole Christmas? After weeks of bickering between Congress and the White House, President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law a plan that ended a partial 16-day government shutdown and suspended ...

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