Dr. Eowyn posted: " We all know that U.S. retail sales depend on the
Christmas season for as much as 40% of their annual revenue. But all signs
are pointing to a rather dismal retail sales for Christmas 2013. That's
Hope and Change for you! ZeroHedge reports on Ch" Respond to this post
by replying above this line
New post on *Fellowship of the Minds*
<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/author/eowyn2/> Christmas retail
sales
slump<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2013/12/26/christmas-retail-sales-slump/>
by
Dr. Eowyn <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/author/eowyn2/>
[image: Christmas
ornaments]<http://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/christmas-ornaments.jpg>
We all know that U.S. retail sales depend on the Christmas season for as
much as 40% of their annual revenue. But all signs are pointing to a rather
dismal retail sales for Christmas 2013.
That's Hope and Change for you!
ZeroHedge<http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-24/retail-traffic-plunges-staggering-21-week-christmas>
reports
on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, that average holiday spending is expected to
decline for the first time since the Great Recession-Depression began in
2008, despite record promotions and an ever earlier start of the buying
frenzy on Thanksgiving day instead of the traditional Black Friday after.
<http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2013/12/Retail%20Shopping%202013.jpg>
Although Black Friday is the busiest day of the year for U.S. retailers,
the week before Christmas is traditionally the busiest week in the most
important shopping season of the year. But
Shoppertrack<http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/dec/23/retail-traffic-sales-down-dec-16-22-shoppertrak/>reported
that
*retail traffic actually plummeted by an unprecedented 21% in the last
week before Christmas, and in-store sales decreased 3.1% from the year
before*, dashing retailers' hopes that the final stretch before Christmas
would offset soft sales numbers earlier in the holiday shopping season.
*ShopperTrak's founder Bill Martin* called the disappointing numbers "kind
of staggering" and attributed the slump to strong sales in early November
(an increase of 4.7% from 2012), bad weather in the Midwest and other
central states, and an increase in virtual (i.e., online) window-shopping
that prevented consumers from setting foot in mortar stores to look, feel
and compare prices. But even online sales aren’t growing at the expected
pace. Although* online spending* from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15 was up 9% from
the same period last year to $37.8 billion, according to the most available
data from comScore, that's still *below the 14% growth *that the Internet
research firm had *forecasted* for the season.
*What Martin did not factor in is the plain fact that many Americans have
discovered their health insurance costs have gone up, thanks to Obamacare,
and as a result, have fewer dollars to spend on gifts.*
But Martin is not revising his forecast of an overall growth of 2.4% in
retail sales for November and December because he's counting on the
post-Christmas sales and redemption of Christmas gift cards. The latter are
not recorded as sales until they are exchanged for merchandise. As many as
80% of shoppers had said they were planning to buy gift cards this year,
which would total $29.8 billion.
*USA
Today*<http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/12/25/holiday-shopping-after-christmas-deals-retailing/4189731/>reports
that retailers across America are rolling out huge after-Christmas
deals. Some online sales, including at Target.com and Kohls.com, actually
started on Christmas Day.
Final sales figures for the Christmas holiday shopping season are expected
in January.
*FOTM is doing our own poll. How much did you spend on Christmas gifts this
year? *
View Poll <http://polldaddy.com/poll/7672528/>
*~Eowyn*
*Dr. Eowyn <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/author/eowyn2/>* | December
26, 2013 at 4:05 am | Tags: Bill
Martin<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=bill-martin>,
Black Friday <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=black-friday>,
Shoppertrack <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=shoppertrack> |
Categories: Economy <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?cat=17656840>,
Obama<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?cat=376320>,
Obama's America <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?cat=12285619>,
Obamacare<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?cat=15633789>| URL:
http://wp.me/pKuKY-oHQ
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