Possible Bright Side To Poor Retail/Xmas Sales??

[stopbush]

Luxury good sales down 36%. Luxury goods are items that cost over $1,000...like HDTVs...like the kind of items people used to buy by tapping the equity in their homes.

Maybe Americans are getting off the credit card express. Maybe Americans are looking at what they can actually afford, rather than believing that their incomes and assets will continue to go up, up up.

For the last 3 years, we have paid cash for Xmas. We have not used credit for anything. If we can't afford to pay cash, we don't get it. Maybe we have to forego a few things that we really didn't need anyway, but the pay off is that we aren't faced with ridiculous credit card balances in February. Of course, that means that we actually budget for Xmas be squirreling away money in the months leading up to Xmas, but the other option is owing interest on top of the cost of the presents themselves.

So, maybe Americans have been forced to re-examine their priorities when it comes to their spending. Would that be such a bad ting long term, even if the short term effects hurt the economy?

[Warpy]

1. I think the awful truth is starting to dawn on people

that while their jobs aren't all that secure, their debt is going to last forever. Whether or not they're working for a living wage or making do with a patchwork of dead end, no benefits jobs, those monthly credit card, student loan, mortgage, and car loan bills demand to be paid first.

I hate debt, always have, but I feel sorry for folks who are just finding out what a miserable trap it is.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Not a bad thing at all

but then you are talking to someone who tries their best not to get into debt, and only fell into the trap once (and that was because we needed to help a "friend" who then absconded with the vehicle we bought her instead of paying for it). To become strong again, our economy needs to be based upon manufacturing and innovation, not retail sales.

[madeline_con]

3. After Christmas sales will rock this year.

The stores are not jammed yet. I think the consumer is waiting them out, till the prices go even lower. There was a $50 drop overnight on the HDTV my sone had his eye on.
Also, more trucks on the way.

The American consumer is beginning to understand the connection between supply and emand, and use it to their advantage.

[grasswire]

4. that is called deflation, and it is very bad.

A network news report last night on post-Xmas sales talked about the phenomenon where there are excess goods. Too much goods; too few people able or willing to buy them even at massive discounts. How do the retailers unload the stuff?

Answer. Eventually there's a breakdown of the system.

The news report didn't mention the word "deflation" or what will follow. It won't be good.

[truedelphi]

7. I am currently doing electronic brokering. Goods that cost $ 28 a piece wholesale are

Now at $ 7. (My sad tale proves your point.)

If you can obtain them. People bought high over the summer; some suppliers do not want to sell off yet. And business is down greatly - why would anyone with a project buy today when if they wait three days,or a week, or a month, they will probably get what they want 20 to 60% cheaper than they do today!!

[NashVegas]

9. If Someone Has Another Way Out That Doesn't Include Enslaving Us With Still More Debt

I'm all ears.

Otherwise, we're probably all about to experience the importance of strong, loving families. Please try to think kindly of those of us who weren't so fortunate in that department.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. Our economy floats on consumer spending

without that spending, without all that conspicuous consumption, jobs will be lost, hours will be cut back, people will suffer. So yes, from one perspective there is an ethical upside to what I expect is going to be measured as a stunningly bad christmas retail season, but that upside is accompanied by an economic downturn the likes of which most of us here have never seen before.

I was at a major mall this morning and crowded it was not. I am no big fan of the way our economy has arranged itself, but this is going to be a massively painful 'correction'.

[stopbush]

8. True, but the bottom has fallen out. People don't have any $.

Reagan began the shift from paying good wages to handing a business's profits over to stockholders. That necessitated the raiding of pensions, and the scam of the 401 - "you can be an investor in your own future!" So, your wages sucked, but you had your 401...until the company sqaundered that as well. To mitigate this disaster, we saw the artificial inflation of the housing market, driven by speculators. Then, we were given interest-only loans on mortgages and urged to treat the imaginary equity in our homes as an ever-growing bank account, all to fuel consumer spending. As the bankers lured the gullible into this scam, they covered their asses by getting Congress to enact laws that made individual bankruptcy nearly impossible - even those who went bankrupt still owed the full ride on their credit card debt (which had also lost its tax deductibility under Saint Ronnie).

Now, the banks are sitting pretty - they are owed trillions by individual consumers, yet these consumers are being stripped of every asset they have, their homes, their retirement, even their jobs. But, they still owe that credit card debt, the debt they amassed to fuel the consumer economy. Like Old Man Potter, the banks sit ready with their mergers and acquisitions and their pile of government handout cash, ready to purchase homes and other assets for pennies on the dollar. The consolidation of wealth into the hands of the already wealthy is nearly complete. Soon, you'll be able to RENT the home you once owned, and for not much less than you were paying each month as a mortgage.

Welcome to the Republican version of the American dream.

[Mari333]

6. the landfills will be less crowded

every time my late husband would walk into a store with me he would say 'oh look dear, the beginning of a landfill'.