Kurt Barnard
Kurt Barnard
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If you stash money away in a savings account, then there's less available to buy things in a store, from candy to cars. This is not quite the conventional retrenchment we've known from past recessions, but it may represent a kind of wishy-washy stagnation.
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Americans, for one reason or another, have not given up on their infatuation with SUVs that guzzle gas by the gallons. But there's only so much money to go around. If people are paying more to drive their cars, they will have less money to spend on other things.
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Everybody is worried about a soft landing for the economy and a contraction of consumer spending. And come Christmas it will be far less exciting than a year ago. The high cost at the gas pump is beginning to take its toll and for a lot of families spending an extra $20-to-$25 a month on gasoline means spending that much less on stores.
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These two companies give a must-have lesson for all retailers. Shaper Image has seen sales jump in the double-digits because they keep innovating and offering new, fun and useful products.
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Americans are less secure. There's an uneasiness in the air and a tendency to look over one's shoulder more often.
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Are consumers buying more? I don't know. I think what Wal-Mart said about people spending less of the rebate money this year in stores is significant. It shows people prefer to save any extra money than spend it.
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They have all learned one lesson -- make yourself more efficient. Operate more economically, and do more with less.
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The blizzard was a serious setback for retailers, especially since the Presidents Day weekend is a major day for sales. Most of the malls and independent stores were shut in the Northeast.
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February is a testing month for spring, and the results have not been spectacular, ... There seems to be a sense of foreboding that while spring is likely to be a smidgen better than we have seen in past months, it is not going to be a barn-burner.
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Americans are being bombarded with announcements of layoffs. Anytime you listen to the radio it's always 3,000 laid off here, 500 there, ... That means a lot of people who have decent jobs and good income hear that little voice in the back of their head asking the question 'could my number be up next?' They're buying what they need, but they don't buy frivolously.
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They (retailers) don't know. All they can do is hope and guess more than anything else. It's a brutal, brutal problem,
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Rebates are wonderful to the extent that they are executed, regardless of the deficit.
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Retailing and consumer spending are a function of a four-letter word -- jobs. And there are no jobs being formed in the United States at the present time. We are in an unfortunate labor climate, one that might be called not at all propitious for retail spending.
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They are now getting into the apparel business in a way they have not known before -- in a way that establishes Sears Roebuck as a major operation in apparel.