Business: The Hungry Consumer
The brightest earnings news last week came from companies that sell directly to the U.S. consumer. Jewel Tea profits were up 12% to $7,800,000 in 1958, S. S. Kresge up 4% to $13.8 million, Kroger up 5% to a record $21.6 million. Retailers across the U.S. were setting an even faster pace in 1959. Compared with January 1958, last month's sales were up 7.2% for Lerner Stores, 7.8% for National Shirt Shops, 11.5% for S. H. Kress, 17% for Franklin Stores, 18.2% for Peoples Drug Stores.
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GABRIEL SILVA, Colombia's defense minister, responding to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez's claim that the U.S. sent an unmanned plane into Venezuelan airspace
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