Post Christmas Sales; Sign of Economic Trouble

[tomreedtoon]

There are lots of commercials being prepared this Christmas weekend by TV stations. They are ads for the big retailers who are having massive - larger than normal - post-Christmas sales. That suggests that, no matter how many toasters Wal-Mart sold, that retailers in general didn't sell a lot this Christmas. They're trying to get rid of the inventory before December 31st.

As everyone has hinted at over the next few months, those who were lucky enough to afford a mortgage (I'm not, and never will, unless the Lotto comes through) are about to lose their homes. And jobs will be the next to disappear. The only safe investments are in canned beans, guns and ammo. Thank you, President Bush.

[OneBlueSky]

1. I had occasion to truck on down to the local Tower Records tonight . . .

to pick up a CD for my nephew that I had forgotten to include in my online order . . . fully expecting traffic to be backed up for a mile or more near the malls, I was amazed that I was able to never stop moving, pull right into the lot, and find a parking space right in front of the store . . . in and out in no time, since there weren't more than ten people in there . . . when I've shopped this late in past years, it's always been a madhouse, but not this year . . . weird . . .

[bananas]

3. You just explained a lot of it

You bought everything online,
and only went out for one item you forgot.

[Warpy]

5. I refilled a prescription at SprawlMart last night

and their parking lot was 3/4 empty! This is a store in a poor part of town, and generally the lot stays full from Thanksgiving to January 2. In years past, parking has spilled onto all the streets surrounding the place.

This is BIG. Bread and butter customers are buying less. Don't try to tell me everybody in this hood is shopping online, because less than 25% of the households here are online.

Sales figures will undoubtedly be skewed upward by the sale of platinum plated big ticket items to the fully gorged overclass, but watch for those sales figures from big box stores this year.

People who are spending seem to be doing so in a very desperate frame of mind, thinking that this will probably be the last year for the consumer Christmas.

[Carolab]

2. The MOA traffic was bumper to bumper though.

Lots of shoppers there.

[sandnsea]

4. Son said Black Friday was busiest

He said there hasn't been a day as busy as the two days after Thanksgiving, not even today. And we aren't even in a slow economic area.