Christmas revenue up this year

[Deja Q]

I read in a recent Newsweek that stores did well this year. Better than last year, but not by much.

Without all these jobs for the middle class, just who is spending more to make Xmas 2004 look better?

http://retailindustry.about.com/b/a/114990.htm is one link but I couldn't find the graph showing the intricate details.

[Pam-Moby]

1. Oh yes our great tax cuts...

sarcasm...

[Lefty48197]

2. Here's something I posted on that subject:

Basically, the problem is that the right wingers will spin any bit of information about holiday sales to their advantage.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=284x34

[Deja Q]

3. Thx for the link... Personally, I think that the

wealthy (top ~10%?) are spending more to compensate. That or the shrinking middle class somehow feels comfortable in spending or thinking that, as the end is coming, to have their fun now? :shrug:

[Pam-Moby]

5. You maybe corret...! I know we didn't spend

as much as in past years. I think that tells you that we are not in the top 10%. If fact-not even close.

[MARALE]

4. This is a borrowing culture

With the low interest rates, people are buying all the big items now before rates go up. Most of the Items this year for Christmas were bigger ticket items, I got a kitchen sink myself! There are stats out there on the debt rate, it is insanely high.

[jdots]

6. In La-La land the 99 cent stores did big bizz

The Richy Rich stores did well and alot of people floated thier credit cards into the toilet.

[SheilaT]

7. The top

five percent is so incredibly wealthy, that if they spent just a little bit more (little bit by their standards) it could have made the whole Christmas season look good.

But I think out here in ordinary Middle Class America, we collectively didn't spend as much.

But it's hard to prove that, since they tally up all that was spent, and if the total was greater than last year, it's the same as if everyone individually spent more money. I know I spent somewhat less than last year.

[stanwyck]

8. Actually, in a Time magazine column

asking the Wal-Mart CEO 10 questions, he predicted back in the fall that revenues would probably be down for the holiday season. He based this on the Wal-Mart staff having to put more items back where they belonged...there's a marketing term. What was happening was that people were putting items in their carts, then rethinking their decisions as they couldn't afford all their purchases. So, they'd start taking things out. This caused the Wal-Mart staff (probably, knowing Wal-Mart, off the clock) to have more than ordinary re-stocking of displaced items. Based on the unusually high amount of restocking, he was predicting a downturn for the holidays.
I know I did some of that myself this season...but I did take the time to put items back in their original aisles.
And I was shopping at Target. Not Wal-Mart.