[Wright is right!]

"It took them to the middle of the article to actually admit that sales for the season were actually UP from last year. If you were to judge by the tone of the article you would think sales had actually fallen."

And note, too, there's NO MENTION of ONLINE sales. In our household, we bought a Kodak EasyShare digital camera online, and a number of jewelry items online from QVC. I also ordered and had shipped a gift for Mom online.

We spent, in other words, about what we normally do. But we did NOT do it in bricks-and-mortar stores.

Yes, the media is in an all-out full-court press to kill off any optimism about the economy. They're basically beginning the '04 election cycle right now.

Michael

[Dave S]

Yes, the media is in an all-out full-court press to kill off any optimism about the economy. They're basically beginning the '04 election cycle right now.

What do you do for a living other than shop? If you were out there as an entrepreneur or in sales you would know that things arent as optimistic as you seem to think. Perhaps you're living off Social Security and your savings, so you can just sit back and bitch about those that say the economy is tough. If you were in a competitive segment of the economy you would know things suck. My clients are hurting and as a result my business is off more than a third from last year.

[kylaka]

Online sales were up 40% over last year. The article also fails to mention that the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, "The Selling Season" was 5 or 6 days shorter than last year. The media are on a mission alright.