the forerunner of the charge card. The embossed metal tag is used to print the customer's name and address on a sales check. 1931--1940: VALUE AND PROGRESS THROUGH THE DEPRESSION1935 Rural Electrification Act brings electricity, and later telephones, to rural America... IBM is selling more than three billion Hollerith cards a year for its tabulating machines, which are rented, never sold. It has 90% of this market. 1941--1960: THE AGE OF COMPUTING AND DATA PROCESSING BEGINS1956 Southdale near Minneapolis becomes the first enclosed, two level shopping mall in America... IBM sells RAMAC, (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control), the first computer disk storage system... Eisenhower launches the interstate highway systems, speeding migration to the suburbs and displacing rail for many goods shipments1961--1970: NEW FORMATS AND NEW TECHNIQUES1962 Discounters appear: Kmart from Kresge, Woolco from Woolworth, Target from Dayton's, and Wal-Mart Discount City from Sam Walton's Ben Franklin variety store... Sears opens its first data center... IBM introduces Wholesale IMPACT (Inventory Program and Control Techniques), an automated replenishment system (and the forerunner of INFOREM) that uses statistics and a smoothing algorithm rather than a min/max system. 1990 - PRESENT: MAJOR INVENTIONS AND LABOR ISSUES1993 Invention of the Internet. The retail industry went online!1996 - More than 300 fashion industry representatives -- including retailers, manufacturers, designers, workers, labor, consumer advocates, and celebrity endorsers -- participate in a Forum to discuss the challenges embodied in eradicating sweatshops and the importance of working together to identify and implement solutions. 1997 Creation of the Workplace Code of Conduct, and Principles of Monitoring by the Apparel Industry Partnership to ensure the elimination of sweatshops and certify that products are produced in compliance with the Fair Labor Association Standards.199...
