More Data Showing Retreat After Black Friday

[Woochifer]

Looks like the shopping boost that began on Black Friday has dissipated. Last week, retail sales fell 3.5% compared to the year before, and 10% compared to the week of Black Friday. Looks like the discounting might get more aggressive as time gets closer to Christmas, since this is already a shorter holiday shopping season than last year.

The only question is whether the sales decreases are in line with the retailers' reduced inventory sizes or if they are steeper than expected. The reduced inventory virtually guarantees that this holiday season's retail sales will be lower than last year. The big question is how much below last year's sales levels represents a disappointment and how much represents a disaster.

One interesting bit of info from the AP article is that the foot traffic fell dramatically (upwards of nearly 20% decline), yet the retail sales did not have nearly as steep a decline. This indicates that people who are venturing out to the store, are buying more than they did last year on average. Problem is that much fewer people are shopping, which might explain the empty stores that people are seeing.

The article also indicated that sales for the month of November fell by 0.7%. While this is not a good trend, it's not nearly as huge a drop as October, which fell by about 3%, the biggest decline in more than 20 years.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/...ap5805520.html

ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which measures retail sales at more than 50,000 outlets, reported Wednesday that sales for the week ended Saturday fell 3.5 percent from a year earlier and 10.1 percent compared with the prior week. Foot traffic plummeted 19.6 percent as compared with the year-earlier period and fell 18.5 percent compared with the previous week.

For November, ShopperTrak reported that retail sales dipped 0.7 percent and foot traffic to stores dropped 16.7 percent compared with a year earlier.

[pixelthis]

Who cares?
The most significant thing about Christmas holidays is that they may be the last
type of Christmas we have traditionally had.
Therefore we need to enjoy them, because as bad as 2008 was 2009 will be
worse

Most retail count on the holidays, with a poor holiday showing they will be facing a long drought,
Look for the meltdown early next year, its gonna be a mess
And if the auto industry caves, it will be a mess squared
Nobody in their right mind would go out and spend a lot on the holidays this year,
need to save that cash on other luxery items...like food.