Consumers Give Signs of a Free-Spending Holiday Season (WTF)

[54anickel]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/25/business/25spend.html?adxnnl=1&oref=login&adxnnlx=1101394992-+0Jf6qX9um8o7/97LZ4zfw

Jim Bernau is expecting to enjoy this Christmas a lot more than last year's. Mr. Bernau, the founder and president of Willamette Valley Vineyards of Salem, Ore., is used to seeing holiday-season sales begin in earnest right after Thanksgiving. But last weekend, people were already three deep at the counter of his winery's tasting room.

"This holiday season is going to ring some pretty loud bells," Mr. Bernau predicted. "Consumers are definitely shaking off whatever was bothering them."

Wine is the kind of discretionary purchase that provides a good indication of how flush people are feeling. So as retailers nervously enter the all-important holiday season, the strong sales of a winery's pinot noirs, along with other indicators, suggest that consumers are poised to keep spending through the end of the year. Indeed, the pinot noirs on Mr. Bernau's Web site, www.willamettevalleyvineyards.com, sell for $17 to $50 a bottle.

Business in other areas is showing promise. Retail chain store sales rebounded from a dismal spring and summer to rise 1.3 percent in September and 0.8 percent in October. Last month, employers added 337,000 jobs, the most since March, and the help-wanted index compiled by the Conference Board, a barometer of future job demand, rose for the first time in three months.

The University of Michigan's index of consumer confidence, after falling for three months in a row, finally ticked up this month.

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