Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Shopping and Spending.....Less

Bloomberg.com recently published a timely article with the title U.S. Luxury Retailers Face Grimmest Holiday Season:

“Luxury retailers may suffer the industry's biggest reversal of fortune during the holidays as the global financial crisis dents the wealth of the richest Americans…For five years luxury retailers outpaced low-priced chains. The projected drop this year would be the group's first since 2002, the year the ICSC [International Council of Shopping Centers trade group] began keeping the records.
Among the sectors, discounters may see the biggest improvement this holiday season, more than doubling their gain in sales at stores open at least a year to 2.5 percent from 1.1 percent a year earlier, the group estimated.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aL0rwl_zsfWk&refer=home

And indeed, retailers like Target and Walmart seem to understand that is they are going to get anyone to buy anything this holiday season, so consumers have to think they are being virtuously thrifty while doing it. Notice the television ads for discounters Walmart and Targer, and Kmart—Layaway—who thought that would make a comeback?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This says it all. Guess the rest of us will have to be happy shopping at Walmart while the GM and other top auto executives fly around in their private jets.