Tuesday, June 23, 2009

June Retail Sales - Looking for an Excuse

Found this Reuters news article humorous. June isn't over yet but apparently the media is already trying to find excuses that don't involve blaming the economy on why June retail sales are bound to be horrendous. Let's see, you have gasoline shooting sky high, employment getting worse, interest and mortgage rates spiking higher, etc. etc. but if the sales numbers come in bad, we can blame it on the weather. For some reason I don't think the weather matters that much right now. Just for the record - Texas has been melting. We are experiencing August weather.

Rain and cooler-than-usual weather so far in June may have dampened demand for summer items such as sandals, swimwear and beer for retailers already hard put to counter sales declines during the recession.

Wait - shouldn't this be a boost to retailers? You know, more discretionary spending dollars available.

Given the cool weather, not many consumer found a need to turn on air conditioners.

According to Bastardi, there was lower demand for power to run air conditioners in much of the U.S. Northeast.

No comments: