Consumers

November Retail Sales Up On Gasoline, Autos Not a Factor

Real quick, looks like we have a gain over October and a better-than-expected number overall for November Retail Sales.  And the “clunkers” were irrelevant… From CNNMoney: Retail sales jumped 1.3% in November, according to the Commerce Department, well more than the expected increase. Economists had expected retail sales to rise 0.6% from October, according to…

Where Does the Money Go?

The below infograph from Flowing Data gives us a good idea about what we as US consumers spend our money on.  The data goes back 25 years so you can see the trend in each category of expenditure. If they had just used data from my spending, you’d see separate line items for brick oven pizza and Ghostface…

The Yuppie Bounce

Go try to find an interview with virtually any sell-side analyst or money manager either in print or on financial television from this past February. Most told you to be completely out of stocks, understandably. The ones who did have the courage lack of choice and had to be recommending stocks in the media were…

Droppin' Knowledge: Howard Davidowitz Unleashed!

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.865317&w=425&h=350&fv=]   Something about Howard Davidowitz gets me pumped!  Even when the subject he’s pontificating on is universally negative, such as the prospects for most retailers and consumers this year. In the above video from Yahoo‘s Tech Ticker, the retail industry maven keeps it real and confesses his utter shock at the disconnect between consumer/…