Saturday, November 27, 2010

Black Friday Fail

I had to laugh after reading this today:

"NEW YORK (AP) -- Shoppers crowded stores on Black Friday but spent just a little more than last year on the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, according to data released Saturday by a research firm.
Retail spending rose a slight 0.3 percent, to $10.69 billion, compared with $10.66 billion on the day after Thanksgiving last year, according to ShopperTrak"

Quick Take:

CNBC wasa pumping Black Friday all day yesterday.  They were using google maps to look at how much more filled the lots were this year versus last year.  The CNBC talking puppets were placed in malls all over the country to report on Black Friday traffic.  They all predictably raved about how full the malls were..

If the mall were indeed packed,  then the people weren't buying once they got in there. 

Should we really be surprised?

It's kinda hard to shop when your credit cards are maxed out, you have no job, and you are $100,000 underwater on your mortgage.

To be fair:  More and more people are shopping online so these numbers should decline over time.  This will eventually lead to more job losses as the malls begin to take huge revenue hits which is the last thing this country needs.

You would think the REIT's and commercial real estate would be dropping like a rock as as a result of both the death of the consumer and fewer people heading to malls for shopping.  Of course in this wacky market these stocks have done nothing but soar this year.  Some of the stocks like SPG are up over 300%.

It's amazing what stocks can do when they are manipulated by trading robots. 

2 comments:

EconomicDisconnect said...

Well I paid up on black friday buying fittings and gaskets for a new bathroom sink I installed that refused to seal and not leak! I made my contribution in cheapo china stuff and endless profanity when the sink just KEPT LEAKING!

I think I got it fixed now.

Jeff said...

Glad you got it fixed.


Sometimes you gotta feed the beast out of necessity!