NYT: Rush at end, but holiday sales fall short

[DeepModem Mom]

Rush at End, but Sales Fall Short
By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: December 26, 2006

....Shoppers swarmed discount stores and mobbed suburban malls over the crucial holiday weekend, but the final burst of buying is expected to fall short of retailers’ expectations.

Visa USA, the credit card company, said yesterday that it would lower its closely watched forecast for holiday spending. Based on purchases by credit and debit card holders, Visa said sales rose 6.5 percent in November and December, compared with the same period last year, down from its initial forecast of a 7.5 percent gain.

The company’s unexpected downward revision — and the millions of dollars in lost sales it represents — could have broad implications for the nation’s merchants, who count on purchases during the holiday season for nearly half of their business.

For consumers, it will probably translate into even deeper discounts over the next week, as they begin redeeming millions of gift cards.

Industry analysts said that, after a strong, discount-induced start the day after Thanksgiving, consumer spending slowed in December and never fully recovered. A soft housing market and high fuel prices pinched consumer spending, while unseasonably warm temperatures damped sales of cold-weather clothing from New York to Chicago....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/26/business/26retail.html

[Erika]

1. W's descent of our economy into a third world country

And he and his have theirs.

[ninkasi]

2. I'm sure Bush

and his wealthy base...the haves, and the have mores...are baffled at the tepid sales. After all, their wealth has soared. For the rest of us, though, part of their soaring profits come from stripped benefits from the working classes, and shipping their jobs overseas.

The only way to prevent us from being a Third World Country, is to have a healthy middle class, and narrowing the gap between the ultra wealthy and the rest of us. I don't care what the economic numbers say, I only know the reality of what my loved ones face every day.

[SoCalDem]

3. People only have so much space and eventually they

start filling up every nook & cranny of their houses..and of course sooner or later those cards get maxxed out..
Re-financing the house 5 times a year is pretty much over too..

the "party" may be over ..
Gross consumption simply HAS to end sometime. People cannot keep buying shit to keep the "economy moving" forever.

Young people today do not even remember the time when people replaced stuff when it broke..they outgrew it..or they wore it out.

People did not shop for recreation. A shopping trip was for a specific reason..not just for something to do.

[modrepub]

4. Naw

Someone will come out and say this was a great holiday shopping season. It always seems to happen. Bad news comes out then someone says they did great and we get a "mixed signal".

[ClintonTyree]

5. Luxury goods did a whopping business though.....

with record profits and creative book keeping the "haves" made out like fat rats this year. Again. The sales of luxury goods was at an all time high, it just didn't "trickle down" to the little folks. As usual. The rich get richer and the middle class disappears. The poor? I needn't tell you how they're doing.

[xchrom]

6. stop sending our jobs to china and india and viet nam and

korea -- and you might begin to see an american economy they pundits and fabulists keep trying to sell us.

[The Anti-Neo Con]

7. Figures...who has the money anymore?

Not us.

The wife and I spent VERY little on x-mas this year...like less than $50.

[Maeve]

8. Well, two of my kids just headed out to shop for bargains

And Hubby was up too $#%@$#% early, in hopes of catching a laptop for $200 in the post-Christmas sales. I'm going out later to spend a little holiday cash...at deep discounts. Good for us, not so good for the stores. Sales are not the same as profits (some places sold lots of big screen tvs, but at less than cost) and the forecast for 2007 isn't happy for the marketplace.

[Maccagirl]

9. I'd like to apologize to the retailers

for not being a good little consumer, but if someone would pay me more that $9 an hour maybe reality would be a little different.

[LiberalEsto]

10. You should have seen our Big Lots store

Big Lots is a place to buy really cheap stuff. Our local Big Lots in Montgomery Village, MD was packed with shoppers for many weeks before the holidays. It was virtually picked clean about two weeks before Christmas. The dollar stores also did a roaring business.

Meanwhile the mall stores were offering huge discounts, sales and coupons just to get people through the doors.

Middle class Americans are doing considerably worse than they were 6 or 7 years ago.

[4dsc]

11. What deep discounts??

most of the deeply discounted item are sale items that looked like left over crap from last year..

When I see LCD TV advertised at 50% off, then I'll buy one..

[ileus]

12. It's still a 6.5% increase....

[stubtoe]

13. Yes indeed. But they always complain, every year.

Never fails!

[greccogirl]

17. As I posted further down, try to get

near the mall even two weekends before Christmas for all that stuff nobody is buying..........

[VegasWolf]

14. 6.5 is pathetic!!!! Barron's reports 8.3 from last year's Nov/Dec sales.

After early warning signs this year from WalMart and Target, economists lowered this year's predictions down to 7.5, already less than last year. These results are dismal. Consider these paragraphs from the same Times report -

<snip>
Industry analysts said that, after a strong, discount-induced start the day after Thanksgiving, consumer spending slowed in December and never fully recovered. A soft housing market and high fuel prices pinched consumer spending, while unseasonably warm temperatures damped sales of cold-weather clothing from New York to Chicago.

“We knew spending would be slower than last year,” said Wayne Best, senior vice president of economic analysis at Visa USA. “But it seems to be even slower than we predicted.”

The lackluster performance, well below the 8.3 percent increase in 2005, came despite respectable last-minute sales over the weekend.

</snip>

In addition, these dismal numbers represent only spending and do not show the weakness on the bottom profit line due the deep discounts!

Canaries in a coal mine! Thanks Bush, you total asshole!!

[brentspeak]

15. Isn't it just wonderful that our economy is now measured in terms of retail store sales?

Sarcasm.

[Me-Oh-My]

19. That's because the greedy

Christofascists want not only:
The wehole national economy to revolve around their holiday
TO have the ONLY RELIGIOUS NAtional Holiday
Make everyone, no matter what religion or beleife say the name of their savior.

SAY IT! SAY IT DAMN IT! SAY CHRISTMAS DAMN IT!

Totally unchristian and Unreligious. Just proves the mega-church mongers are all business, and should be taxed that way.

[greccogirl]

16. They say this every year. And every year you can't

find a parking spot.

[Maeve]

20. Hmmm...we shop different malls, then

Crowds were decent, but I never had trouble finding a parking space.

And "sales" are not equal to "profits"--one electronics company was selling vast numbers of flat panel tvs...at cost or below.

[silvermachine]

23. Here in Northern Virginia...

...the trip to the malls at Tyson's Corner is usually a very hellish experience. Very tame this year though. Very little traffic getting there, no trouble finding a parking place, and far from the usual crowds inside.

[Jack Rabbit]

18. How about that recovered economy?

Some figure don't lie, I guess. Sooner or later the misery will trickle up to Wall Street.

[pinniped]

21. Sorry, my bad. I failed to send the CC offer in on time.

I'll try better next year.

The company’s unexpected downward revision — and the millions of dollars in lost sales it represents

[Doctor_J]

22. The terrorists are winning!

Smirk said that we can strike back at Al Qaeda by buying things. If we don't get back to the malls, the next thing you know bin Laden will be marching down 5th ave

[maxsolomon]

24. The Zeitgeist: Buy Nothing Xmas

http://adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/bnxmas/view.php?id=350

HAVE LESS, LIVE MORE: BUY NOTHING CHRISTMAS



RECLAIMING THE SEASON: Those of us who shiver at the thought of hour-long line-ups and $5 gift tags finally have something to rejoice about over the holidays: fed-up citizens and social activists from across the world are inviting everyone to take part in Buy Nothing Christmas.

Inspired by the international successes of Buy Nothing Day, and disgusted with the personal debt, spiritual emptiness, and ecological damage that the holiday season now entails, writers and activists began to heavily promote the idea of a downshifted Christmas in the late nineties. Since then, the idea has been taken up by individuals, community groups, churches, and schools in at least a dozen countries, with strongest support in Canada, the USA, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Despite the name, the Buy Nothing Christmas campaign is not really about refusing to spend a dime over the holiday season. It’s about taking a deep breath and deciding to opt out of the hype, the overcrowded malls, and the stressful to-do lists. It’s about reminding ourselves to really think about what we are buying, why we are buying it, and whether we really need it at all.