His father owned a shoe shop in Ningbo, a city south of Shanghai, where he was born in 1918.

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She had worked in an office and a shoe shop before embracing the Quiverfull life.

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The multicoloured balls in bubble-gum machines could be picked up in a girl's dress, or the red of a stiletto shoe matched with the frame of a shop window.

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Hobsons shoe shop on the Strand in Derby has put a display with five coloured rings in its window.

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But now two other companies have challenged Google for the jester's crown Twitter, a microblogging service, and Zappos, an online shoe-shop.

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Only when individuals become paying customers and shop around for their own coverage will they stop acting like Imelda Marcos in a shoe store: Buy all you want, price no object.

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He grew up the son of shop keeper parents (both also engineers) in Germany, where working in the shoe store was a family affair.

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They have embraced companies that serve them well, such as Zappos (an online shoe shop that lets you order, try on and return as many shoes as you like) and Southwest Airlines, a cheap but friendly carrier.

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