Posted on 12/26/2008 5:34:47 PM PST by An Old Man
Edited on 12/26/2008 5:35:48 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Price-slashing failed to rescue a bleak holiday season for beleaguered retailers, as sales plunged across most categories on shrinking consumer spending, according to new data released Thursday.
Despite a flurry of last-minute shoppers lured by the deep discounts, total retail sales, excluding automobiles, fell over the year-earlier period by 5.5% in November and 8% in December through Christmas Eve, according to MasterCard Inc.'s SpendingPulse unit.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
“A 5.5 and 8 percent drop is “plunging”? Why does this seem more like a modest decline?”
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They probably operate on a rather thin margin so when sales drop this much they are running in the red. Fixed costs that cannot be rapidly cut back mean that a fairly small drop in volume can be catastrophic.
Maybe I’m missing something but I don’t see how a single digit drop in sales qualifies as a ‘plunge’ in sales.
A 20% drop maybe but 5-8%?
JB
Polyester and Made in China and $109?! Got to be kidding. Drop it 50 pct and the customer is still probably paying twice wholesale.
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It’s an old ploy, mark it skyhigh and sell it half off. Forty years ago someone was in the office where I worked with a flyer offering tires at fifty percent discount and with a tread wear and puncture guarantee. They seemed to think it was a good deal until I pointed out that the list price was more than double what I had ever paid for a tire, in fact the company had never even attempted to sell a tire at that price and the guarantee was prorated against the list price, a little math quickly showed that anyone taking advantage of the guarantee would actually pay more for the replacement tire than they had paid for the initial tire purchase which was far too high to begin with even after the fifty percent discount off list.
This fellow who claimed to be from Muskogee, Oklahoma must have anticipated Obama long ago because he laid out the following plan for all that free money, I plan to follow his advice as follows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_2UScthu6Q
I suggest we all follow this plan, it sounds great.
Where did you find the 50” for that low?
It was several weeks ago. It was newegg.com I THINK. I visit gottadeal.com just about every day to find the good electronic deals.
Great. Thanks :)
Turns out we have been spending our money on things we neither needed nor wanted. Those who have avoided buying a new SUV even though they could afford a new SUV now might find they have more money.
Cars might be important up to a point, but we have buried so much of our wealth in them that we can now drive ourselves to the poorhouse in style. [That’s what they said during the Great Depression, and it is still true.]
They have certainly been busy around here.
Amazon said it had the best sales ever, but I didn't see any numbers. If true, then I wonder what they were adjusted for inflation. And the WSJ graph showed on-line sales down 2%. So it wasn't just the weather.
Dart Drug
Drug Fair
GEM stores
I liked that! Another popped up when the first one finished. Perhaps other will enjoy that also. Are The Good Times Really Over
The background graphics are terrific!
What are they protesting? I thought Walmart was also having a record year.
April, there may me room for you in Galt's Gulch. Lots of folks have been moving in lately. They all seem to flourish in a society free from the "parasites", "looters", and "moochers".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-IJxTd8dCo
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You might like this one too. I gotta quit listenin’ to Merle before my wife asks me why I’m cry in’.
Your post reminded me of Mad Man Muntz
What makes her so great? Is it the fact that she can go around killing animals on camera and not be under any public scrutiny? What was Michael Vick locked up for?
Before we welcome you to The Free Republic, you need to answer a question. When do we get all the free stuff the 1 promised?
I should say thanks. I am speechless, however, seeing what I’ve been reading on a chart. All I can say is....
Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
That is a good point.
Many businesses have opened too many locations.
Best Buy, Future Shop, Linens and Things, Home Depot, etc.
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