U.S. Retailers: "Weakest January in decades"

[cieldumort]

-CNN MONEY-

Wal-Mart's distress signal
The world's largest retailer leads a parade of sales misses in January,
indicating trouble in the U.S. economy.

Bad News Bears 1:47
An ominous forecast from Cisco Systems and weak retail sales have markets seeing red. (Video)

-MarketWatch.com-
A dismal January chills retailers

Comments

A bad January is a bad sign

[venuspluto]

That's when people who got cash for Christmas generally spend the money. (This past month I bought a new pair of tenner-shoes, two Metallica CDs to replace worn-out cassette-tapes, and a new cast-iron frying pan. Rock on!)

Re: A bad January is a bad sign

[cieldumort]

Poorest January showing since Nixon was in office, as it's being reported.

Consider not only the cash for Christmas received, but also all of those gift cards. January is usually the month they get cashed in, and "reported" as sales. The finding? People used them, alright, but not only did they spend them more on necessities, like food, and toilet paper, but also, largely didn't spend over the amount of the gift cards, something retailers always counted on before.