Unconventional wisdom: mass retailing is still growing.(Brief Article)

Despite all the banter about how bad a year it was for mass retailing, total industrywide performance was actually solid with sales growing by $46 billion, a 9.7% increase over 1999, according to DSN Retailing Today's exclusive Annual Industry Report (See page 19).

So for many retailers, despite the external, uncontrollable factors in the marketplace, growth was--and still is--very much attainable.

Consider the following facts derived from this year's Annual Industry Report.

While several chains have struggled and two venerable companies ceased operations, more than one-third--58 companies to be exact--of the Top 150 retailers posted double-digit …