Retail Sales Plummet

[aggiesal]

Source: The Wall Street Journal

By ANN ZIMMERMAN, JENNIFER SARANOW and MIGUEL BUSTILLO

Price-slashing failed to rescue a bleak holiday season for beleaguered retailers, as sales plunged across most categories on shrinking consumer spending, according to new data released Thursday.

Despite a flurry of last-minute shoppers lured by the deep discounts, total retail sales, excluding automobiles, fell over the year-earlier period by 5.5% in November and 8% in December through Christmas Eve, according to MasterCard Inc.'s SpendingPulse unit.

When gasoline sales are excluded, the fall in overall retail sales is more modest: a 2.5% drop in November and a 4% decline in December. A 40% drop in gasoline prices over the year-earlier period contributed to the sharp decline in total sales.



But considering individual sectors, "This will go down as the one of the worst holiday sales seasons on record," said Mary Delk, a director in the retail practice at consulting firm Deloitte LLP. "Retailers went from 'Ho-ho' to 'Uh-oh' to 'Oh-no.'"

The holiday retail-sales decline was much worse than the already-dire picture painted by industry forecasts, which had predicted sales ranging from a 1% drop to a more optimistic increase of 2.2%.

Luxury goods, once considered immune from economic turmoil, were hardest hit, with sales falling 21.2%, compared with a jump of 7.5% a year ago, when the economy had just begun to sputter. Including jewelry sales, the luxury sector plunged by a whopping 34.5%.

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Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123025036865134309.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us

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The Bush economy at it's finest !!!

[rurallib]

1. Raisinggas prices should fix it. C'mon Exxon!

:sarcasm: (this is for the sarcasm impaired)

[marylanddem]

2. Baby boomer spending habits

I'm wondering just how much the massive cohort of aging baby boomers, like myself, who have basically filled their houses with STUFF for the last few decades, have seriously slowed their spending habits - looking at retirement.

I know that stuff means jobs for those who make it, but it's hard to feel bad about the curtailing of jewelry sales and other luxury items that none of us ever needed - or perhaps really wanted until the corporate masters told us we did.

[Warpy]

8. The jewelry sales are a bit of a shocker

because a lot of it is high medium stuff, the stuff favored by the corporate managerial class. Tiffany's, for example, has posted large sales decreases in the past few months. I can only guess that the loss of paper wealth by this class has affected their buying habits.

The ultra high end is all one of a kind stuff by individual artists, and I have no idea how that is doing. Artists are paid to be discreet as well as for their skills.

Most people are cutting back now. Even if they have a steady income, they feel the cold hand of offshoring descending on their jobs and have finally gotten the point that while jobs and income come and go, debt is forever.

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself," was how FDR summed it up and he was right in a certain sense. Depression psychology had taken over even those with secure incomes and that is a great part of what was slowing recovery. I'm seeing that happen all over again now.

[customerserviceguy]

10. Jewelry doesn't surprise me

the well-to-do have felt quite a bit of an economic shock in their stock portfolios since last year. And even though they can pay the mortgage (if they still have one) they know damn good and well their real estate values have softened considerably, even without a quarterly statement to reming them how much less home sweet home is valued at compared to last year.

Besides, jewelry is not a consumable good, how damn much of it does one person need, anyway?

[Warpy]

12. No, but it's hockable when times get really tough

and can always be exchanged for food at a cheap diner.

[NashVegas]

14. But These Are Nouveau Riche And Have No Tradition Of That

The small tech company CEO got his wife a granite counter-top for her birthday, cause it seemed so much more practical than perfect ruby earrings.

[Lucky Luciano]

11. A lot of Wall St people have seen a huge amount of their wealth

evaporate...bonuses in the form of stock that is still vesting are all worth considerably less for example...as are other investments...Some people who used to be quite wealthy (say $10MM+ excluding their homes) are now close to broke due to the total destruction of their stock - e.g. Bear/Lehman employees. They will not be going to TIF to spend $25K on a necklace for their wives this year.

[NashVegas]

13. That's a Great Point

Advertisers have been chasing the boomer demo since they were teenagers. Now, they're headed into retirement and are not going to need all the latest gadgets and what have you, to keep up with the Joneses. Meanwhile the next generations don't have the buying power ...

[JDPriestly]

17. What you just heard on Wall Street? That was the sound of

the baby boomers' retirement savings dropping off the Empire State Building.

That's why people aren't buying. While baby boomers may not be buying junk for themselves, they certainly would buy a lot for their children and grandchildren -- if they had money to buy with.

[Odin2005]

33. I've read of a prediction from the '90s that the retirement of the Boomers would worsen an...

...economic crisis that would start in the middle to end of this decade. The prediction was from the recently late political insider and social historian William Strauss (a Boomer himself) in his 1997 book "The 4th Turning" and he called it the "Great Devaluation".

[Duer 157099]

36. That is an excellent book isn't it?

That's about the only thing that's given me any hope for the future, reading that book and realizing that this current generation of young adults is uniquely qualified for the challenges they will face. It sort of put many things in perspective and demonstrates how the cycle will continue and resolve itself, as it has so many times in the past. A really great read.

Course it sucks for us boomers/13th-ers, but we had a good run while it lasted.

[Odin2005]

38. I post on an excellent history/current events message board started by the authors of that book.

http://www.fourthturning.com/forum

I post there as Odin. One of the poster's there happens to be the well known Harvard (IIRC) history professor David Kaiser, who was a friend of William Strauss

[yorkiemommie1]

16. I am so done w/ my 'stuff'

and am getting rid of it as fast as I can.

Frankly, I'm just as thrilled w/ my Rachel Ashwell sheets from TARGET ( 28 bucks ) as I was w/ my gold bracelet last year.

I suppose I'm getting more practical as I age. ( And I'm tired of dusting! )

[tinrobot]

22. Me too. Next year, I might ask people to take stuff away for Christmas.

I'm very much of the same mind. Less stuff means more freedom.

I'm seriously trying to lighten the load, and actively getting rid of stuff that just weighs me down.

[llmart]

26. I should have read the entire thread.....

but I posted about the same thing. I really got into voluntary simplicity about 10 years ago and it is so liberating. The reward of living simply for many years is a fat savings account.

[PassingFair]

41. I am "done", too, but there are two voracious teenagers to take my place...

at the trough.

So, I will work until I DROP,
and tell my children to reproduce
sparely and EARLY.

[llmart]

24. This baby boomer.......

bought very little this year and most of it was food items. I don't need any more stuff. I've been working at getting rid of my extraneous stuff over the past 10 years. My grown children don't want to have to deal with it all once we die. I think it's terrible when people get old and die and leave an absolute mess for their children to clean up.

[all.of.me]

28. My next door neighbor died two years ago.

She was a reclusive pack rat. She had one kid who agreed to deal with it all. We filled six contractor dumpsters with trash from that house. Looking back, I can't even tell you what we threw out, but the house had a little path from the door to the kitchen to one bathroom (the other was filled with junk) to the downstairs bedroom and through the bedroom to the little space she'd made for herself to sleep on the bed. Two thousand square feet and a two car garage filled with every mail and phone scam you can think of. UPS and FedEx were down here every day almost.

Oh yeah. Sixteen Persian cats, three dogs, two macaws and a rooster (all the hens had died).

This was a huge wake-up call to everyone in the neighborhood. I am really good about not collecting stuff, but I went home and looked around. I asked myself, 'If I dropped dead today, what would others see as junk and toss?' I'm even more vigilant about it now.

[Odin2005]

30. The Boomers have consumed this country to death

It seems like every time the first generation born after a great crisis comes to dominate the halls of power the lessons of the last crisis end up ignored. Every. Fucking. Time. Hence all the deregulation and idolization of the "Free Market" that led to this current crisis.

"History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes." --Mark Twain

"There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny." --FDR

[Tesha]

42. That's a big factor here at the Tesha's...

> I'm wondering just how much the massive cohort of aging baby boomers,
> like myself, who have basically filled their houses with STUFF for the last
> few decades, have seriously slowed their spending habits - looking at
> retirement.

That's a big factor here at the Tesha's -- Mr. Tesha and I have been together
and for quite a bit more than a decade and living in our current house for
nearly a decade; at this point, the place is pretty much furnished and
equipped! Every wall in the place that can hold a bookcase has one, and
they're all loaded with books. There's enough furniture for us to sit on,
sleep in, and store our clothes and goods within. Several years ago, we
gave the economy a boost by re-doing our kitchen (including all-new
appliances, most made in the USA) and replacing a couple of cars, but
now we're set in those areas for the next quite a while. Earlier this year,
we did our part for the economy by buying a nice big flat-screen TV, a
high-end AV receiver, and a new subwoofer, and the economy paid Mr.
Tesha back almost immediately by seeing him laid-off from his software
engineering job of the last eight years. The receiver and the subwoofer
went right back to the store for a refund; we'd had the TV a bit too long
to morally justify returning it.

Now he's employed again, so we replaced the twelve year old, highly
worn-out TV with another flat screen, but that's about it; anything else
we spent money on would be pretty redundant at this point. And Mr. T's
new job is none-too-secure so for that reason, and the reason that we're
pretty much all-shopped-out anyway, the economy is just going to have
to get by without much further stimulus from us!

Tesha

[demigoddess]

45. I'm a baby boomer that has NOT filled my house with stuff. We were a military family

and moved and did not have as much as other people. But I am getting older and have been looking around and downsizing on the extra. And donating to Goodwill etc. Seems like donations are down and we need to keep those kind of operations going in these hard times. So, Baby Boomers, get out there and donate all that stuff and keep things moving.

[Atman]

3. Why aren't the rich out spending, like we "poor" people were told to do?

How come it's OUR patriotic duty to SPEND and incur more debt to the money-changers, but the money-changers, the only ones truly capable of helping the economy via spending, are instead told they need even more tax breaks?

We are victims of the biggest financial fraud in world history, and it ain't Madoff. It's BushCo.

.

[SpiralHawk]

4. The putrid fruit of republiconomics

Ptoooey on republicons and their so-called 'conservativism'

The republicons have done this to America. Never forget.

[radfringe]

5. my spending this season

consisted of 3 small gifts for my partner and gift IPOD music cards for my 2 nieces.

total holiday spending about $100.00, my parents/brother/sister received IOU's

[Kahuna]

6. When a jewelry store goes out of business in Short Hills, NJ, land of

the very affluent, I know times are bad. I read about one recently biting the dust. :scared:

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

7. Congrats to the repubs. They got what they wanted-

-a stone broke populace. MUCH easier to manipulate.

A pity they chose this moment to completely self-destruct...

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

19. plus they can buy up all the properties on the cheap

The rich can win in this game of monopoly - just buy up all of the homes
and land lost through bankruptcy.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

31. I have a feeling they're finding out an ugly truth about now-

that wanting something and having it are two different beasts altogether.

Let 'em buy all the foreclosed McMansions and watch 'em sit empty, decaying, stripped of wiring and plumbing by scavengers who have no other way to pay their own rent. Ask the banks- it's one nightmare of theirs that's coming true with a vengeance.

[antimatter98]

9. I guess these figures look good since it appears Americans are still buying..

but I assume they are 'buying' on credit.

I don't like to pay retail markup and then to put it on a CC
where there's 22% interest. Amounts to a huge markup. Americans
are used to paying this markup though, so it will never change.
Same with cars, same with houses---credit makes these cost
far more.

If average Americans ever 1)run out of credit or 2)decide not to
pay the banks and retailers the huge markups, things will
change drastically.

[JDPriestly]

15. In France, people protest loudly in the streets.

Here, in the U.S., they just stop shopping. Interesting. But, you see, our nature, in general, really really is more individualistic.

There must have been millions of families like mine that just agreed this year that gifts would be small and practical.

Well, so much for supply-side economics. This is surely the death knell.

Shall we talk about the wages that make demand possible? Shall we?

Shall we talk about requiring living wages everywhere in the world as a prerequisite for free trade?

Shall we talk about the relative value of currencies?

Shall we talk about charging more for items produced in conditions that clearly harm the environment?

Don't you think it is about time we measured success in something other than GDP?

[stevietheman]

18. I think there's a "zero debt" movement forming, and that's more a cause of this...

retail slump than fear of a deepening recession.

But I have to laugh at the corporate news networks, who get a lot of their advertising from national retailers, as they so desperately try to sell the story that unless we good consumers get out there and start spending all kinds of money we don't have again, then the economy will go to hades in a hand basket. Well, I say "f**k 'em!"

[Optimistic]

20. Century long depression is here

WE will have 100% unemployment and 100% Bankruptcy by March 2009 unless Obama creates jobs for every man, woman and teen looking for work because every single corporation will fold in the next 60 days.
And looking at worldwide news this is going to be a worldwide depression
It really looks like the End Of The World is coming fast.

[knitter4democracy]

21. Um, is your screenname supposed to be ironic, then?

There's a bit of dissonance there. :)

[stevietheman]

23. Probably a freeper being facetious. n/t

n/t

[Hydra]

25. Let it come

Because it's not "The end of the world" it's "The end of an Era."

Free Trade failed. Trashbin it. Capitalism failed(And created massive pollution). Trashbin it. Pretend Democracy failed. Colonialism failed. Religion failed. Need I go on?

It's time for a fresh start. "The change we need."

[cabluedem]

35. I doubt we can change much unless we can get rid of old ideas like stock markets. Greed is what has

killed the golden goose. Any "Star Trek" fans ever figure out how the human's of the 22nd century operate without anymore monetary currency?

[Hydra]

37. From what I gather in that series

They made a big push to place everyone at a certain wealth level when it became feasible. Somewhere around real middle class. At that point, it became more about status than about money. Status was gained by ability and work, though, which is the difference from our system. Getting into starfleet meant that you could go places and see things that others couldn't, with the attendant risks and responsibilities.

Their version of currency was access to technology, and that was based on the meritocracy I mentioned above. Replicators were a big one, but holodecks were too, and time on that was rationed.

Meh, I think we can work something out sort of how they did- start by feeding, housing and free education(Graduate level) for everyone. Make work available if they want it, and give rewards for work, like work credit or something if they want to have luxuries or to have large families. Most importantly, we have to stop the wars and using resources that pollute. The Oceans aren't far from collapse, and we'll go with them if they do.

[cabluedem]

40. Agreed. We can and must do better.

[demigoddess]

46. they gave everyone an education and put them all to work.

that and electronic money seemed to be it.

[dysfunctional press]

27. who do you mean by "WE"...?

:shrug:

[percussivemadness]

44. congratulations, you win the award for most stupid DU post of 2008

and believe me, you have much competition, however, the judges in this annual celebration of hysterical stupidity felt you post captured the complete cluelessness that many DUERS have aspired to achieve in the last 12 months.

well done, your prize is a free 12 month subscription to www.freerepublic.com , where all previous recipients of this prestigious award now post.

[tomreedtoon]

29. There's nothing new that I need.

No clothing, cologne, hair styling, or shiny car (even if I could afford them) will make women hate and despise me any less. Nor will a GPS do what a downloaded and printed map will do for a fraction of the price. I have all the computers I need and none of the movies out there interest me.

In short, I found that buying things won't make any difference and will hurt me in the long run. Maybe a lot of other Americans will realize the same thing.

[aggiesal]

32. I have this same discussion with my wife ...

There are "needs" and there are "wants".
Corporations and Advertisers have a way of making "needs" into "wants".
So people continue buying "wants" and convince themselves that it's a "need".

Then, when you take a good look around your house, you find out what
are really "needs".

[Doremus]

34. Yet my grandfather supported his family of 6 with a small town jewelry store in the depression.

He was a watchmaker, so part of his trade was repairing clocks and watches, but still, I would love to know how he did it.

I'm sure his inventory had nothing like Tiffany, Cartier or other luxury brands but in old family photos of his store I see Roseville vases, Franciscan china and other good quality (i.e. not inexpensive) items.

This was well before the age of big box chains so I'm sure the lack of competition helped his bottom line. Yet another thing to thank the corporate masters for -- removing our ability to survive #567900.

[jaksavage]

39. 5% is not plummeting !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! nt

[ozone_man]

43. Wait until they release the profit on those sales.

All of those discounts, up to 75% I heard today. That is the story really.