Clearly everyone was hurt by the weather and store traffic declined sharply. But retailers can hope to recover this weekend, and from the one extra shopping day this year.
Sales are going the way they did in the last two years, which was after Thanksgiving, things settled down. But we also see, I think, the power of weather on these numbers.
The overall story is one of continued strength of the consumer but there are a couple of underlying stories here too.
We did see a boost from gas prices, we're also coming off a big surge in building materials. So there were some big swings in some components of the report. But broadly, even excluding the volatile cars component, the gain was 0.7 percent, which is still quite healthy.
What you're seeing is that some retailers are getting back to normal, but the weakness seems pretty widespread among department stores. So it's still an extremely fragile environment.
I think that is the kind of story we will see in the next few months, then a big drop-off after New Year's.
Consumers continued to buy for everyday needs, the staples, such as food, drugs, health and beauty aids.
Real discretionary purchasing power has picked up this year, and is relatively strong.
That was the dominant story in May. But you have to put the numbers in context, especially with April having been so strong.
Copyright © 2024 Electric Goat Media. All Rights Reserved.