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A Ho-Hum [Retail] Christmas Already? [lose all hope, all ye who click here]
Business & Media Institute ^ | November 7, 2007 | Julia A. Seymour

Posted on 11/07/2007 1:35:35 PM PST by 1rudeboy

Christmas is still nearly seven weeks away, and already the media are offering a “Bah, Humbug” for retail sales and the U.S. economy.

CNN shoveled coal at the positive economic news on November 2 and immediately moved into full Grinch mode.

“You know, just earlier this week the broadest measure of the economy, Kyra, the GDP, came in at 3.9 percent, stronger than expected. What’s working against it, though, the financials, concerns that we’re going to have a lot more carnage coming from that very important sector, consumer spending …” said “Newsroom” correspondent Susan Lisovicz.

Gloomy reporting about holiday sales is nothing new for the media. In 2005 the Los Angeles Times declared that shopping season was off to a “lukewarm” start, and CBS “Sunday Morning” declared Black Friday sales “were a bit flat.”

But all of that negativity didn’t keep Christmas from coming – in fact, retailers saw 6.3-percent growth of holiday sales in 2005. The National Retail Federation actually had to revise its sales forecast from 5 percent to 6 percent thanks to Thanksgiving weekend sales.

The media were similarly downbeat in 2006, using the terms “mixed performance,” “not so merry” and “lackluster” to describe seasonal sales – which ended up growing by 4.6 percent.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessandmedia.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: christmas; doomage; retail; wearedoomed
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"That's it, man! Game over, man! Game over! What the **** are we going to do now? What are we going to do?"

1 posted on 11/07/2007 1:35:37 PM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy

Just so long as nobody starts “talking down the economy”, I think we’ll be OK.


2 posted on 11/07/2007 1:36:45 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (The broken wall, the burning roof and tower. And Agamemnon dead.)
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To: 1rudeboy

They started the “Lousy Christmas” talk about the same time last year.


3 posted on 11/07/2007 1:38:16 PM PST by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll. <br> "What happens if neutrinos have mass?")
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To: ClearCase_guy

Nobody buying poisoned Chinese toys?

Maybe when they go on sale.


4 posted on 11/07/2007 1:39:13 PM PST by donna (If America is not a Christian nation, it will be part of the Islamic nation. Pick one.)
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To: 1rudeboy
On a brighter note-Walmart has its "CHRISTMAS" shop open. When we went to the outside department almost everything was "Merry CHRISTMAS!" and the main display was a huge nativity hung above the entire department.

On to home depot, most of the Christmas trees are actually tagged as "CHRISTMAS" trees and one of the main inflatables that is at the entrance to the department is printed with a huge Merry Christmas!

May not be a big deal to others...but I liked it and told both store managers that I appreciated it!

5 posted on 11/07/2007 1:40:36 PM PST by icwhatudo (The rino borg...is resistance futile?)
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To: 1rudeboy

Best of the four in my opinion.


6 posted on 11/07/2007 1:41:44 PM PST by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: 1rudeboy

I don’t need CNN to tell me anything.

I need only the knowledge that people cannot use their homes as ATM machines this year to tell me that this will be a really bad retail Christmas.

Our economy is built on credit. When people aint got it, they don’t buy stuff.

It’s not rocket science.


7 posted on 11/07/2007 1:44:00 PM PST by RobRoy (Islam is a greater threat to the world today than Nazism was in 1938.)
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To: 1rudeboy

It’s Deja Vu all over again.


8 posted on 11/07/2007 1:47:41 PM PST by Fledermaus (The Dark Knight is coming !)
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To: RobRoy
What's to stop people from using their homes as ATM machines this year over any other, apart from less favorable terms?

I mean, if you are CNN's target demographic (easily convinced of impending doom), and believe that our nearly six-year economic expansion is purely credit-driven . . . .

9 posted on 11/07/2007 1:48:20 PM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: Fledermaus

It’s so crowded nobody goes there anymore.


10 posted on 11/07/2007 1:49:55 PM PST by weegee (NO THIRD TERM. America does not need another unconstitutional Clinton co-presidency.)
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To: 1rudeboy

As opposed to the 1990s internet stock bubble.


11 posted on 11/07/2007 1:50:34 PM PST by weegee (NO THIRD TERM. America does not need another unconstitutional Clinton co-presidency.)
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To: 1rudeboy

Is the MSM even allowed to use the word “Christmas” anymore?


12 posted on 11/07/2007 1:50:51 PM PST by the_devils_advocate_666
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and believe that our nearly six-year economic expansion is purely credit-driven

Well, if the shoe fits... loans and credit pouring in to pay for services. It's the ultimate phony economy. Personally I hope it crashes so that we stop sending our dollars overseas, the dollar rebuilds its value and those of us who actually follow the laws of economics can buy stuff at lower prices again.

13 posted on 11/07/2007 1:53:03 PM PST by jmyrlefuller (The Associated Press: The most dangerous news organization in America.[TM])
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To: 1rudeboy

Individual cases notwithstanding, I am talking about the general climate.

The general climate is, fugetaboutit.


14 posted on 11/07/2007 1:55:19 PM PST by RobRoy (Islam is a greater threat to the world today than Nazism was in 1938.)
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To: jmyrlefuller

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g19/Current/

Yep...


15 posted on 11/07/2007 1:55:27 PM PST by dakine
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To: RobRoy

When dicussing economics, it’s best to leave metaphysics to the side.


16 posted on 11/07/2007 1:57:20 PM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: icwhatudo
On a brighter note-Walmart has its "CHRISTMAS" shop open.

Christmas is December 25, dude.

Thanksgiving (remember that?) is more than two weeks away.

Pimping Christmas when the leaves are still on the trees is sacrilegious and a disgrace.

Brighter note for the Prince of this World, maybe.

17 posted on 11/07/2007 1:59:22 PM PST by Jim Noble (Trails of trouble, roads of battle, paths of victory we shall walk.)
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To: 1rudeboy

;)


18 posted on 11/07/2007 2:01:51 PM PST by RobRoy (Islam is a greater threat to the world today than Nazism was in 1938.)
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To: Toddsterpatriot; Mase; expat_panama
In keeping with my movie motif:

"Ya know, someday this expansion's gonna' end."

19 posted on 11/07/2007 2:02:18 PM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: 1rudeboy
Santa and I have already had a discussion.

I promised not to drink & cuss so much & he promised to bring me a big ole flat-screen HDTV!

Woo-Hoo!

20 posted on 11/07/2007 2:04:18 PM PST by TexasCajun
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