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October 15, 2008

Retail Sales Tank In September

No surprise here


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales at retail stores recorded their biggest monthly drop in more than three years in September while a measure of inflation eased, according to government data on Wednesday that intensified recession fears.

A gauge of manufacturing in New York State tumbled in October to the lowest since its inception in 2001, a report from the New York Federal Reserve Bank said.

Retail sales fell 1.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted $375.5 billion, the Commerce Department said. That was the sharpest drop since August 2005 and far worse than the 0.7 percent decline economists polled by Reuters had expected.

I can't help but think that this is going to get much worse before it gets any better. Who is going to spend much of anything on Christmas? I think these next two months, so key for our economy, will be a disaster.

Monday was a dead cat bounce for the market, I fear.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at October 15, 2008 09:49 AM

Comments

I don't know about you, but outside of a single $10 DVD, I don't think I spent a cent outside of groceries in September; and I've convinced my wife of the need for a strict Christmas budget.

Posted by: Tainted Bill at October 15, 2008 10:17 AM

Same here, Bill.

Assuming that you, as a reasonable fellow, consider alcohol 'groceries.'

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at October 15, 2008 10:27 AM

But of course, Johnnie Walker is an essential part of my weekend diet. But the current economy requires that I drink Red instead of Black.

Posted by: Tainted Bill at October 15, 2008 10:54 AM

If you have a Bottle King near you try Tomatin; it's only $19.95 a bottle and it's a decent single malt.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at October 15, 2008 11:29 AM

There may also be additional reasons for poor retail sales. I went clothes-shopping yesterday and it looks like much of the stuff was designed by or for one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Seriously, it's like all the gloom and doom has been translated into clothing form. So I'm not going to accept that it's "just a bad economy" if the stores complain that ladies' clothing sales have sucked this fall.

Posted by: ricki at October 17, 2008 08:47 AM

True, ricki. As the father of a teenage girl I can vouch that most things I see in the "Teen/Miss" departments are Ho-Wear. I realize that fathers have probably said such since the beginning of Time but it's gotten out of hand the past few years.

And there's also no "Must Have" toy this year, nothing that I hear little monsters screaming for, so there's nothing with any buzz about it to help the stores.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at October 17, 2008 09:09 AM