December 27, 2007

When you're done with those presents...

Tony over at A Red Mind in a Blue State has some interesting thoughts on the state of the economy and how it's reported:

Will it stop? The unending media hysteria about the economy?

The story this morning is that Internet plus brick and mortar sales are up 2.4% this season.

Given the incessant drumbeat of bad economy, bad economy, bad economy-- I thought the tag on the story would be, hey, not bad!

But no. For whatever reason-- incompetence, latent Bush-bashing, the inability to ever report good news-- the headlines were mostly negative. Sluggish. Poor. Disappointing.

How could 2.4% growth in the "teeth" of this mortgage meltdown, etc. be deemed disappointing?

Read the rest, including some interesting facts about gift card sales.

I think Tony has a point. Sales ARE up. Doesn't that mean people have the $$ to spend? Or does it mean that they'd rather sink farther into their credit bills so the kids can have the Wii and the computer and the new iPod?

Either way, it means they plan on having a place to keep what they bought, so people must be somewhat more than negative-feeling about the whole housing/mortgage/ interest rate business.

Even more interesting was the item about gift card sales. I wonder what the total figures would be with those included. Especially as sales of gift cards increased ALONG with the direct sales increases reported.

What do you think?

Posted by caltechgirl at December 27, 2007 12:26 AM | TrackBack
Comments

I think it's all a crock.

I question whether they're taking online sales into account. I did more shopping online this year than I ever have before. Also, I used zero credit cards. I'm so proud of us for only using actual money on our purchases. And we had more presents under our tree this year than ever in our 8 Christmases together. We dropped a ton of money this year.

That's true about the gift cards, too.

Posted by: wRitErsbLock at December 27, 2007 07:15 AM

We had a smaller ($$ amount spent) Christmas this year than last, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I do know people who don't pay Dec's bills just so they can spend on Christmas goodies!

Posted by: Michele at December 27, 2007 03:53 PM

Thanks for the shout-out! It should be interesting to see the final numbers--tho I'll wager if they're good, they'll be buried! (Glad to hear your Mother is dong well)

Have a safe, happy & healthy New Year!!

Posted by: Tony Iovino at December 27, 2007 08:32 PM

From what my Hubby says - gift cards don't "count" bottom line/economy wise until they are used. And generally people spend 20-30% more than the dollar amount of the gift card.

Retailers love 'em... (I do too!)

Posted by: Richmond at December 28, 2007 04:41 PM

Thanks for posting that slice of common sense. The "sky is falling" crowd will never learn.

Posted by: Rudy Carrera at December 29, 2007 02:48 AM