US holiday retail sales growth weakest since 2008

[marmar]

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. holiday retail sales this year were the weakest since 2008, when the nation was in a deep recession. In 2012, the shopping season was disrupted by bad weather and consumers’ rising uncertainty about the economy.

A report that tracks spending on popular holiday goods, the MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, said Tuesday that sales in the two months before Christmas increased 0.7 percent, compared with last year. Many analysts had expected holiday sales to grow 3 to 4 percent.

Shoppers were buffeted this year by a string of events that made them less likely to spend: Superstorm Sandy and other bad weather, the distraction of the presidential election and grief about the massacre of schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn. The numbers also show how Washington’s current budget impasse is trickling down to Main Street and unsettling consumers. If Americans remain reluctant to spend, analysts say, economic growth could falter next year.

In the end, even steep last-minute discounts weren’t enough to get people into stores, said Marshal Cohen, chief research analyst at the market research firm NPD Inc. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.boston.com/business/news/2012/12/25/holiday-retail-sales-growth-weakest-since/1I1j5xuls1prNxvXbQCUSL/story.html

[Indydem]

1. Everyone was out buying guns.

I doubt that gun shops are polled for sales numbers.

[DJ13]

2. I'm sure glad that pesky recession is over

for the 1%.

For the rest of us, here, have some austerity.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

5. Hey, I thought that everything is great. That's at least what I thought I have heard.

My wife and I stay away from the stores. The only gifts we give are to our child and children of extended family, and those are mostly books: things you can learn from.

We made a vow to stay away from the cheap plastic Chinese crap.

[bluestateguy]

3. This is a very misleading article

The author does not know how to read and interpret statistics.

[Cobalt Violet]

4. No mention of flat wages.

They can blame it on the weather all they want. They never seem to get that people can't spend what they don't have.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

6. And why would we want to load up our credit with debt?