Retail sales this season seem down

Retail sales this season seem down

And thefts are up. Economy must be boomin I tell ya.

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: JAGStorm

The cost of living is taking it's toll, lucky though we can still eat cake.

If the cost of living is high for you , move.

originally posted by: Gothmog

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: JAGStorm

The cost of living is taking it's toll, lucky though we can still eat cake.

If the cost of living is high for you , move.

Better yet, get a better paying job.

Hopefully people are not buying a lot of junk they do not need to try to combat climate change. Christmas probably contributes to climate change more than a lot of things do.

originally posted by: randomtangentsrme

originally posted by: Gothmog

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: JAGStorm

The cost of living is taking it's toll, lucky though we can still eat cake.

If the cost of living is high for you , move.

Better yet, get a better paying job.

Right 3/4 Of the population need to get a better job do they, you must be a stable genius, I mean the economy is great right ...so much derp with you morons it's painful.

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

originally posted by: randomtangentsrme

originally posted by: Gothmog

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: JAGStorm

The cost of living is taking it's toll, lucky though we can still eat cake.

If the cost of living is high for you , move.

Better yet, get a better paying job.

/whoosh



Right 3/4 Of the population need to get a better job do they, you must be a stable genius, I mean the economy is great right ...so much derp with you morons it's painful.

dp

a reply to: eXia7

Yes and you're one of them.

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: eXia7

Yes and you're one of them.

That was a jooooke! You know, like Demented Donald likes to deliver. You just have to have them explained to you, that’s all and they are funny. Or something else.

a reply to: ManFromEurope

Maybe I should order some pills from infowars so I can keep up with their incredible intelect.

I don't have any kids and stopped buying gifts for Christmas years ago. It's a lot less stressful. If I need something I just buy it. I have way too much stuff already. Trying to get rid of stuff. Trying to finish moving and I know I have too much stuff. It becomes a large burden having lots of stuff to move, sell, donate, and figure out the value of stuff. As baby boomers retire, they will want to down size and likely have tons of stuff they want to get rid of. I helped a parent downsize. Now I have more stuff to deal with. Fortunately for me at my old house, Salvation Army can send a truck to pick up several large donations.

After all the kids left my parents house, at some point years ago everyone decided just to buy gifts for immediate family. Of course your parent is still immediate family. Gifts that are needed is what gets bought now. Pants, shirts, etc. I give my time to help more than anything else. I'm busy buying supplies for my parent every week. If my parent needs something, I don't wait for Christmas.

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: JAGStorm

The cost of living is taking it's toll, lucky though we can still eat cake.

But only because mass produced cake made with ultra refined ingredients from industrial farms, assembled by robots and workers who don't make a living wage, is cheaper than fresh vegetables from the local farmer's market. Which you struggle to get to because they can only afford to set up in a location that isn't served by public transport as the local Wal-Mart lobbied the town council to prevent other retailers from setting up in down town locations.

a reply to: JAGStorm

It's funny you mention Target and Costco, we were just at Target this week for Angel Tree shopping (hubs' work does it) and Costco for monthly staples. Target was almost "summer traffic" normal -- not dead, but not bustling, either. And pricing IS good there this year, it's normally a bit higher than elsewhere. The Costco I go to is in a very busy end of town with hellacious foot traffic any other day of the year, though, so it's no different than normal there. Seriously, every Friday is practically Black Friday-busy in my Costco, so it's hard to judge if foot traffic is up or down or what.

Meijer hasn't been as jam-packed as we expected, and we had to pop in to 4 different ones around the area yesterday while out & about (the old "Oh s#! I forgot XYZ!" crap) Don't get me wrong, it's still busy AF in there, but it's not wall-to-wall people like in previous years. There's elbow room in the isles, lol.

Overall, road traffic seems no different, either. Maybe a little busier than normal around rush hours, but not by much. Even neighborhood deliveries don't seem any more frequent than normal, Amazon, UPS and FedEx are coming through at their normal times, and don't seem to be hauling ass through, the pace is still leisurely.

Personally, just through observing & talking to people we know, I think the belt got seriously tightened this year for holiday spending than people are willing to admit and for varoious reasons overall that normally didn't crop up in the past. I know too many people who are slashing their budgets compared to previous years, and it's not because they're poor, or bad budgeters, or got their hours cut, etc. Many are seeing spikes in CoL (property taxes, utilities, food) That doesn't seem like much at first glance, but a little here and a little there adds up all year.
Even our Christmas shopping budget got slashed. I usually budget $300 to $400, MAYBE $500 if you want to include last minute brain fart gift ideas in local stores a few days before Christmas. That gets spread out between October and December, I'm not a rush shopper, I hate that.
This year, we re-budgeted $250 for everyone. The beginning budget was higher, but we reduced it. We're betting on higher gas heating bills in January and February, so we set aside more for those ahead of time and pulled it from the initial Christmas budget. The Christmas shopping is effectively finished after a few days' worth of looking, too. Hubs and the older kid went and did theirs yesterday, and he's taking the younger one tomorrow. After that, it's basically done, nobody has any other ideas for anyone at the moment.

I ALSO think holiday gifts are moving away from gifting things, and heading steadily toward gifting, what are they calling it now ... "experiences". I know a few people gifting museum memberships to family, someone else is pooling with other family members to pay for gas and lodging gift cards the recipients can use to take their kids on a road trip next year, instead of just putting it on the bucket list, but never having the funds for it (now that's actually thoughtful as hell) My neighbors gifted their grandkids surfing and sandboarding lessons last year. Their grandkids are the same ages as my kids, so I found that to be a really cool gift idea for tweens.

a reply to: DictionaryOfExcuses

Well said.

Cheers

a reply to: JAGStorm

Its a good thing if consumption goes down.

I hate this time of year, not because of the holiday feels, but because I always get the big bills sent to me around between this time of year and the first of the new year. Usually starts with a surprise Christmas tax bill FU very much (Insert my state), then trickles down to other tax and use bills. It’s not like the state and government don’t already skim off enough of my hard earned money, greedy scum. And this doesn’t include raising taxes on consumables I have to buy to survive.

Wife's place is up about %5 on volume not dollar wise. They track day by day heading up to Christmas and have 10 years of data to match it with. All good locally they say to. Small towns seem to be doing good.

Shop local



Weather's been good too.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
Either holiday spending is way, way down. Or people are ordering everything online.

The two places that I use as my litmus test are Target and Costco.

If someone bought me a Christmas gift from Target or Costco I'd punch them in the throat.

originally posted by: GeauxHomeYoureDrunk
I usually spend every Christmas season running around like a chicken with my head cut off...

I can help with this problem.