Retail Sales, what’s the Real Story?

January 15th, 2009 at 08:38am Bob Trojan

Here are the headlines….

“Sales at U.S. retailers dropped a steep 2.7 percent in December, government data showed on Wednesday, as a deteriorating economy forced consumers to cut back on spending during the key holiday period.

The dour data suggested the economy shrank even more sharply than had been thought in the fourth quarter, setting the stage for another big drop at the start of 2009 and raising chances the more than year-old U.S. recession will be the longest since the Great Depression.”

What is the reality?  Did the NUMBER of things sold go up?  Remember, the stores were discounting heavily AND they started the sales in November.  I recall the “Black Friday” sales UP over a year ago; the Internet sale WAY UP from a year ago…so were sales pulled from December INTO November?

I think these type of announcements are very superficial and are doing nothing more than feeding on people’s psychology.

Oh, yes, I forgot, Wednesday morning will be a new world!

Entry Filed under: Economy