March 4, 1997

Many shoppers complain that retail and discount stores do not provide adequate customer service; recent survey of 4,000 consumers by Yankelovich Partners, a market research firm, found that department stores and discount stores tied for 11th in rankings of customer service of a list of 20 consumer services; during last decade of consolidation and retrenchment in retailing, merchants--department stores in particular--have been obsessed with cutting costs, systematically slicing away at very areas on which customer service depends; table; photos (L)

Coffers Overflow in Albany Governor Pataki and legislative leaders agree: the state will be awash with tax money for the next year. Now the debate will turn on how to spend the surplus. Page B1. Hard Line in Albania Raising fears of a flow of refugees from Albania, its leader used emergency powers imposed against protesters to tighten his grip. Page A8. The Ogre's Lair? Archeologists believe they have found the flagship of the notorious pirate Blackbeard off the coast of North Carolina. Page A14.

Wildlife Conservation Society study finds eastern timber wolf, subspecies of endangered gray wolf, is expanding its range in Quebec toward United States, near Maine border; finds long-term re-establishment of wolves is more promising in Maine than in Adirondack Mountains of New York, where some conservationists had hoped to reintroduce them; some scientists favor transplanting packs of wolf from northern Quebec over natural colonization from southern Quebec because southern wolves have interbred with coyotes; map; photos (M)

Clyde Haberman NYC column discusses status of police investigation into year-old murder of Abe Lebewohl, owner of Second Avenue Deli on Lower East Side of Manhattan during robbery (M)

Controversey over New Jersey Department of Transportation's five-year capital improvement program for roads, bridges, highways and mass transit; Transportation Trust Fund provides $700 million a year for these projects, but initially state agency planned improvements with total price tag of $1 billion (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)