Michael Niemira
Michael Niemira
consumers helped holiday late lift
Procrastinating consumers and a late Hanukkah (December 25) helped to lift the holiday season's performance.
consumers headed holiday promotions provided retailers season selling
As the 'traditional' holiday selling season got underway on Friday, consumers headed to those retailers who provided promotions and discounts.
consumer holiday increases softness underlying worry
The consumer is still very cautious. There was underlying softness in November. It increases the worry about the holiday as a whole.
consumer continue credit hang major passive spend tends unless
Basically, the consumer will hang in there. Unless there's some kind of a major problem, the consumer tends to be more passive and will continue to spend if credit is available.
clearly concerns consumer dispel economic gas goes growth impact increases performance positive price results says strong surprised
The strong May performance goes a long way to dispel concerns about the impact of gas price increases on consumer spending, ... I am surprised that the positive results were so widespread. It says 'Gee, the economic growth is clearly countering some of these other drags.'
consumer filter healthy oil prices question react relatively rest sales shows
It shows a relatively healthy sales picture. The question is how will the consumer react when oil prices filter through the rest of the economy.
consumer relatively remained robust spending
Consumer spending has remained relatively robust into 2006.
although categories consumers december furniture held home last looking month november power purchasing retail sales seems shifted
Looking at November and December together, it seems that retail sales held up pretty well during the holidays, although last month consumers shifted their purchasing power to other categories such as furniture and home goods.
cumulative effect higher pennies penny shock top week
Now there's a shock. It's not just a penny this week and two pennies higher the week before. And the shock comes on top of the cumulative effect of all those pennies over all those weeks.
bit gain holiday message momentum move numbers overall positive pricing side stronger suspect trends
I suspect that a little bit of the gain is attributed to stronger pricing power, but overall the trends are very positive for retailers. The message from these numbers is that momentum is on the retailers' side as we move into the holiday season.
industry performance
It's a decent-to-moderate performance for the industry as a whole.
days redemption
Redemption days are going to be very important this year.
continue despite energy impressive remain sales trends worries
Despite all the worries on the energy front, sales trends continue to be impressive and remain strong.
driven holiday largely promotions provide retailers season start strength strong
The strength was largely driven by promotions and did not provide as strong of a start to the holiday season as some retailers would have liked.