The project also kept residents' concerns about giant retailers in mind.

That will make it much harder for several giant retailers already under severe pressure.

But, he added, because the deluge from Kids has just begun, tougher times lie ahead for the giant retailers.

In addition to balky consumers, giant retailers like Wal-Mart are increasingly opposed to price increases.

The apparel rebirth relied on expensive computer systems tying giant retailers more tightly to selected suppliers.

Yet Europe's incongruities are sufficiently confounding - and so deeply seated - that even these giant retailers can hardly expect to call all the shots.

Giant retailers like Wal-Mart and government agencies like the Defense Department have been pushing manufacturers to adopt the technology rapidly and widely.

Such a venture could reduce operating costs and provide more leverage in negotiating terms with giant retailers like Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com.

With Target housed in City Center, Wal-Mart's foray into the city might be seen as setting up a competition between giant retailers.

Reed Anderson, a retail analyst at Friedman Billings Ramsey, said that the giant retailers "don't want to sell a lot of items at a buck."

The giant retailers' invasion of New York City stems in part from big chains having already saturated most suburban locations, and the urban markets are a new frontier.

Most storefront retailers use the Internet mainly for defending and cementing the relationship with customers they already have - a relationship that is very much under siege by giant retailers.

And three giant retailers (Kmart, Wal-Mart and Sears, Roebuck), which sell more than a quarter of all bicycles in this country, stock only American-made bikes.

Meanwhile, giant retailers like Wal-Mart and Costco joined book chains like Barnes & Noble and Borders in chewing away at Coliseum's best-seller business.

Two of those decisions involved giant retailers: Barnes & Noble Inc., the nation's largest bookstore chain, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the biggest discount chain.

The bigger question for Blockbuster is whether it can turn back the tide from giant retailers like Wal-Mart, who have made inroads on its franchise by selling videos at checkout counters.

It is an odd coupling - joining a company, Advanced Marketing, that specializes in selling best sellers through giant retailers, with a company that often helps little-known publishers sell eccentric books.

But in recent years, as big food processors and marketers have grown into giant corporations, co-ops like Farmland have been pressured into getting bigger to keep costs down and supply giant retailers.

Greg LeRoy, founder of Good Jobs, said the report bolstered the group's argument that taxpayer-financed subsidies to giant retailers should be restricted to those expanding into poor neighborhoods where shoppers are underserved.

Labor organizers have had retailers like Wal-Mart in their sights, accusing the company and other giant retailers of keeping wages low while not offering health insurance or requiring employees to pay large portions of the premiums.

Despite surviving a decade of broad competition from chain stores and giant retailers, it has been the prolonged slump in the music industry that has most hurt Mr. Smith's business and other small music retailers.

Sooner rather than later, he says, local economies will re-emerge, trains will replace long-haul trucks, local shopkeepers will replace giant retailers and local farmers will feed local communities, supplanting gigantic factory farms.

He said that the merger, if it was allowed to proceed, would not end price competition for office products because they would continue to be sold by such giant retailers as Wal-Mart, warehouse clubs and several large nationwide catalogue dealers.

The move is part of a set of measures proposed by the Commerce Ministry to halt the rapid expansion of giant retailers, which interest groups blamed for causing the demise of thousands of "mom and pop" stores.

In this respect, Ms. Lividini and Mr. Lagnado pointed out, Saks is like Ralph Lauren, Nordstrom, R. H. Macy and other giant retailers that adjust to changing times.

The project also kept residents' concerns about giant retailers in mind.

That will make it much harder for several giant retailers already under severe pressure.

The giant retailer reveals to the outside world relatively little about activities in its stores.

If its calculations are wrong, however, those spending decisions could come back to haunt the giant retailer.

But would you welcome a giant retailer such as Wal-Mart in your own country?

But, he added, because the deluge from Kids has just begun, tougher times lie ahead for the giant retailers.

No state and city subsidies or tax abatements were offered to lure the giant retailer.

Such a delay may seem insignificant, but the amount of money flowing through a giant retailer quickly adds up.

Wal-Mart, the giant retailer that racked up $218 billion in sales last year, prefers to send them down the river.

It was the kind of pro-Wal-Mart comment the giant retailer might write itself.

Less than two months later, the chain was acquired by Kmart for a sum the giant retailer did not disclose.

The giant retailer acknowledged last week that imported clothing had been displayed as domestic merchandise at some of its 2,000 stores.

The giant retailer saved money through efficient manufacturing and distribution, enabling it to offer prescription drugs at lower prices.

But the giant retailer has made a push in the last year to sell more liquor, along with beer and wine, in its stores.

An Arkansas judge has found the giant retailer guilty of selling merchandise below cost in an effort to drive local competitors out of business.

The giant retailer has said in the past that Prodigy probably does not fit in with its refocused strategy.

The giant retailer reported second-quarter profits of $2.63 a share, compared with 85 cents a share for the quarter a year ago.

The giant retailer also agreed to invest nearly $425 million to build the dwindling stock of Galerias and to modernize it.

The company's orange logo will not appear on the Olympic athletes' uniforms, of course, and television commentators probably won't even mention the giant retailer's name.

In addition to balky consumers, giant retailers like Wal-Mart are increasingly opposed to price increases.

The apparel rebirth relied on expensive computer systems tying giant retailers more tightly to selected suppliers.

This month, it is to consider the giant retailer's proposal to build a store on the site of the Ryerson Tull plant.

Yet Europe's incongruities are sufficiently confounding - and so deeply seated - that even these giant retailers can hardly expect to call all the shots.

By the time Mr. Martinez takes over, Sears will be largely reduced to its historic role of a giant retailer.

But the Saks Clearinghouse segment of the giant retailer's business has been expanding rapidly since the first was opened outside Philadelphia in the late 1980's.