As the weather outside turns frightful, retail businesses with "e-tail" (electronic retail) Websites are hoping that consumers will turn to their home computers for their holiday shopping. A Forrester Research report estimates that seven million shoppers will spend close to $4 billion in online shopping, three times more than last year. However, this equals less than one percent of total holiday...

This recently released 58-page report from the Census Bureau offers a detailed summary of "retail sales, purchases, accounts receivable, and inventory" from January 1990 to December 1999.