US retailers brace for potential pain from a longshoremen's strike

TRENTON, New Jersey: Companies in the business of artificial Christmas trees and other holiday decorations are worried as the dockworkers' strike threatens to close ports on the East and Gulf coasts beginning October 1.

Chris Butler, CEO of the National Tree Company, and many businesses like his are counting on shipments that en route from Asia but won't reach their ports before the strike begins, at a minute a