Retail Sales Improving in America?

[GRG55]

Wonder no longer about what Americans are doing with the new car they bought during the Cash for Clunkers blitz. Apparently they're driving them down to the local mall...how could we have ever doubted the legendary "American consumer"...:rolleyes:

Retailers ‘Live to Fight Another Day’ as U.S. Shoppers Return

Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- ...In the last 10 weeks, Lord & Taylor has seen growth in comparable-store sales, Chief Executive Officer Brendan Hoffman said at a retail panel at Bloomberg’s New York offices yesterday evening.

“We’re definitely seeing signs of improvement,” said Hoffman, whose closely held department-store chain has 46 locations in nine states. “It makes us feel far more optimistic about the upcoming holiday season than we were 12 weeks ago.”...

...New York-based Lord & Taylor was among retailers that cut costs to counter the drop in spending as unemployment rose. The company canceled a $10 million branding campaign overnight, and instead incorporated that message into its advertisements, the CEO said.

Such moves will pull the department-store chain through as the economy improves, Hoffman said.

“We purged so many expenses out of the system that would have taken me decades to probably have done,” Hoffman said. “We have such a lean base right now, and we’ve learned that we can not only survive but really thrive.”

[c1ue]

Re: Retail Sales Improving in America?

Perhaps, but then again, the 'improvement' noted above is suspiciously without detail.

Another viewpoint:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...h4iWQD9B615C80

U.S. retail sales figures from a key data service show signs of a rebound in September from last year's deep plunge.
SpendingPulse, a service of MasterCard Advisors, reports that several merchandising categories, including luxury and electronics, posted gains in September compared with a year earlier. SpendingPulse estimates monthly U.S. sales across all payment forms including cash and checks.
"It's stable, but it's stable at 2005 levels," said Michael McNamara, vice president at SpendingPulse. "We're in recovery mode, but it's going to take a while."
Rising 3.4 percent to $891 million, luxury sales, excluding jewelry, remained slightly below September 2005, when they hit $894 million, McNamara said. They fell 9.4 percent last September.
Since last fall, luxury sales have fared worse than clothing, but last month overall U.S. clothing sales fell 2.9 percent compared with a year earlier. They fell 5.7 percent last September.
Jewelry sales rose 1.2 percent from September 2008, when they fell 5.8 percent. And electronics and appliances, which fell 5.9 percent last September, rose 5 percent this September.
The numbers from SpendingPulse come ahead of the release Thursday by major retailers such as Target Corp. and Macy's Inc. of their September sales at stores open at least a year, considered a key barometer of a merchant's health.
Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers, predicts a 2 percent drop.

[GRG55]

Re: Retail Sales Improving in America?

Perhaps, but then again, the 'improvement' noted above is suspiciously without detail.

You and Al Gore have something in common...but in your case instead of An Inconvenient Truth, it's the Inconvenient Facts you keep bringing up...

How ya gonna get to Dow 12,000 if ya keep spoilin' da fun...

[kartius919]

Re: Retail Sales Improving in America?

If the dollar continues to fall, mass psychology will turn towards consumer goods to preserve any remaining value.

[GRG55]

Re: Retail Sales Improving in America?

If the dollar continues to fall, mass psychology will turn towards consumer goods to preserve any remaining value.

A Canadian friend of mine has done a lot of business selling equipment into Argentina for a couple of decades. I remember him telling me some years ago that in advance of the last Argentine currency crisis his very astute in-country partner purchased several new BMW automobiles [among other things] and put them in storage at his remote farm in the interior. Apparently the tactic worked to help preserve the value of that portion of the family savings he was unable to get out of the country.

Another tactic for moving money out of a country that I heard about [but do not know if one can still use today] is to purchase the most expensive around the world air ticket that you can, take the first leg out to a more stable country [the USA used to be the favoured destination] and then cash in the rest of the ticket for hard currency in that jurisdiction. Now that the USA has blown up financially, I'm not sure where one should go...perhaps Europe?

[vinoveri]

Re: Retail Sales Improving in America?

The consumer will keep consuming ....haven't we all now seen how the debt based economy works ...?

consumer is granted credit (by banks) to spend and consume whether on houses, cars, and everything sold at stores from Boxmart to Saks 5th Ave.
because
Big banks are given an implicit guarantee of TBTF by gov ( and have you ever noticed that all those credit card solicitations you get in the mail are from the Big Banks?)

The Banks make tons of $ via interest payments fees etc., everyone happy

fraction of consumers reach their credit limit and default (erasing their debt but keeping all their purchases and memories of fine living (which by the way helped support jobs and the economy)

After a couple of years, these same defaulting consumers are given new access to credit by other or even the Same Banks to which they defaulted (it's pure financial calculation), and the process continues - in a wonderful virtuous cycle:rolleyes:

Oh, and if on occasion, every 70 yrs or so the confluence of events brings a massive recession resulting in debt defaults that swamp the banks and threaten insolvency, the gov/public steps up to assume the liabilies/debt that have been built up through then, bails out the banks, socializing the losses, and resets, so the cycle can continue.

The government will insure that people keep spending money they don't have ...

the problem is that now that the ROW understands this, not to mention those frugal, debt free savers in the US who have been parking a lot of money in cash (chumps like me), and who understand this system of theft, cash is going to be repudiated at a rapid rate IMO, and while spending and speculating may rapidly ramp up to the delight of the Feds, it will utlimately end in the POOM and the USA banana republic

[Quincy K]

Re: Retail Sales Improving in America?

The consumer will keep consuming ....haven't we all now seen how the debt based economy works ...?

consumer is granted credit (by banks) to spend and consume whether on houses, cars, and everything sold at stores from Boxmart to Saks 5th Ave.
because
Big banks are given an implicit guarantee of TBTF by gov ( and have you ever noticed that all those credit card solicitations you get in the mail are from the Big Banks?)

The Banks make tons of $ via interest payments fees etc., everyone happy

fraction of consumers reach their credit limit and default (erasing their debt but keeping all their purchases and memories of fine living (which by the way helped support jobs and the economy)

After a couple of years, these same defaulting consumers are given new access to credit by other or even the Same Banks to which they defaulted (it's pure financial calculation), and the process continues - in a wonderful virtuous cycle:rolleyes:

Oh, and if on occasion, every 70 yrs or so the confluence of events brings a massive recession resulting in debt defaults that swamp the banks and threaten insolvency, the gov/public steps up to assume the liabilies/debt that have been built up through then, bails out the banks, socializing the losses, and resets, so the cycle can continue.

The government will insure that people keep spending money they don't have ...

the problem is that now that the ROW understands this, not to mention those frugal, debt free savers in the US who have been parking a lot of money in cash (chumps like me), and who understand this system of theft, cash is going to be repudiated at a rapid rate IMO, and while spending and speculating may rapidly ramp up to the delight of the Feds, it will utlimately end in the POOM and the USA banana republic

That is pretty much how I see things.

However, it doesn't take two years to replenish the defaulting consumers. More like 18 months.

Rinse. Recycle. Repeat

Free money for everyone.