Every silver lining has its cloud
The search for gloom within good news seems to never end. NYT:
Holiday Sales Climb, but Shoppers Are Spending Less…
Sales rose 8.3% on Friday compared with last year’s day after Thanksgiving, the biggest increase in three years, according to ShopperTrak RCT, a research firm. But shoppers did not splurge, spending an estimated $348 each over the holiday weekend, down from $360 last year, a survey conducted for the National Retail Federation found…
why did individual spending fall, if sales rose? One explanation is that the most heavily promoted — and discounted — products this holiday season cost less than those of last year.
Is it just us, or is the NYT’s explanation simply incomprehensible as to why total sales are up 8.3% while sales per capita are off 3.3%? The obvious explanation is that more people went shopping this year.
November 26th, 2007 at 3:19 am
I wonder if the reason why those in the press and broadcast media are sure the economy is going to hell is because their corner of the economy **is** going to hell?
It’s been said that “a recession is when my neighbor loses his job, and a depression is where I lose my job.” When things are going so badly for newspapers and television networks, it might be hard for them to see the bigger picture, or at least to admit to themselves that their particular economic problems are not a side effect of recession and overall economic malaise.
December 25th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Dear Mr. Barbara,
Those people who were whining about their losses in November and December, will be bragging to you in January about how much money they made.
Sincerely,
Sarah Murnen
Kalkaska, MI