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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

The Retail Death Rattle

“I was part of that strange race of people aptly described as spending their lives doing things they detest, to make money they don’t want, to buy things they don’t need, to impress people they don’t like.” -Emile Gauvreau.

If ever a chart provided unequivocal proof the economic recovery storyline is a fraud, the one below is the smoking gun. November and December retail sales account for 20% to 40% of annual retail sales for most retailers. The number of visits to retail stores has plummeted by 50% since 2010. Please note this was during a supposed economic recovery. Also note consumer spending accounts for 70% of GDP. Also note credit card debt outstanding is 7% lower than its level in 2010 and 16% below its peak in 2008. Retailers like J.C. Penney, Best Buy, Sears, Radio Shack and Barnes & Noble continue to report appalling sales and profit results, along with listings of store closings. Even the heavyweights like Wal-Mart and Target continue to report negative comp store sales. How can the government and mainstream media be reporting an economic recovery when the industry that accounts for 70% of GDP is in free fall? The answer is that 99% of America has not had an economic recovery. Only Bernanke’s 1% owner class have benefited from his QE/ZIRP induced stock market levitation.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This article is misleading.

In business, the big lie is; that corporations project what they think they will make. When they do not make it, they claim they are running at a loss.

Even if they made more than they did the previous year, which would denote an increase in sales.

This article, as lovely as all the charts are, does not address what sales were, and it does not address online sales, being a reason there are less visits to the big box or mall.

It is a simple question-
Did they make more money in 2013 than they did in 2012?

Anonymous said...

True 11:12, nor does it tell us how strong the company is as a whole such as debt to asset ratio.

Anonymous said...

Best Buy in Bury is too ghetto to sell Apple computers, who wants to shop there

Anonymous said...

Staples Does