Kurt Barnard
Kurt Barnard
adding changes consumer devoted dollars hard home implies kitchens sales spending spent thousands time
Consumer spending is heavily devoted to hard goods. That implies for the most part that home-oriented things have been doing well for some time, ... Home sales have been skyrocketing. Every time a home changes hands, tens of thousands of dollars are spent on decorating, furnishings, adding new kitchens and bathrooms.
buying computer consumers dollar generation grown huge retail sales stores web
As consumers become more comfortable with buying from the computer, ... and this new generation that has grown up with the computer comes of age, what we will see is huge dollar amounts of retail sales being transacted on the Web and we will see a lot of stores become increasingly Web stores.
demand dollars great home occupied sales simply spent thousands time
Demand is great simply because home sales have been going through the roof, and every time a home is occupied for the first time, usually tens of thousands of dollars are spent on furnishing it and refurbishing it,
absent buy documented dollars evidence might planned research somewhat
I think that Jupiter's conclusions are, absent documented evidence of this development, somewhat optimistic, ... They (consumers) do their research on the computer, then they buy in the store, but they're not going to buy more than they had planned to buy. They might buy different things from what they had planned to buy, but there are only so many dollars to go around.
cash demand dollar means related signs tremendous
There's tremendous demand for anything related to gardening, horticulture. It means dollar signs at the cash register.
gap time
What the Gap is doing is not only what it must be doing, but what it should have done a long time ago.
clear economy evidence frightened happening list numbers point public saw today
What's happening is very simple. The numbers we saw today are clear evidence that the American public is shell-shocked to the point of being frightened over a big long list of circumstances surrounding the economy over which they have no power, no control.
bottom checks effect hurt itself nightmare results retailers tax worst
The worst part of these results is that they show that the effect of the tax rebate checks has petered out. This is a nightmare in itself for retailers and it doesn't bode well for Christmas. Also, we'll probably see more markdowns now, more than retailers anticipated for the holidays. That will hurt their bottom line.
companies consumer controls decent demand difficult economic evidence good however inventory nobody orders planning spring time until
They are all planning very cautiously, very carefully. Some companies have very decent inventory controls, but however good those controls are they still have to do some economic forecasting, and forecasting is a little difficult this time around. Nobody is going to spring for big orders until there's evidence that consumer demand is back, and there is no such evidence to date.
clear consumer decent evidence expect holiday last modest sales slow spending three
The sales clear evidence of modest consumer spending slow down. We expect a decent holiday sales season, but an unspectacular one. The last three have been spectacular, particularly the last one.
activity early full last levels lower retailers selling store surprised traffic year
Early indications show that store traffic and the promotional activity is at lower levels than last year at this time. I wouldn't be surprised if many retailers try to get away with selling merchandise at full price.
cash clients continue continued february half marked retail sales sore spending stood stronger telling year
February sales were very strong, stronger than anticipated in many instances. I will tell you that if you were a retailer in February and did not do very well, you stood out like a sore thumb. We're telling our clients that the first half of this year will continue to be marked by continued strong spending at the retail cash register.
february likely month past results seems seen spring testing
February is a testing month for spring, and the results have not been spectacular, ... There seems to be a sense of foreboding that while spring is likely to be a smidgen better than we have seen in past months, it is not going to be a barn-burner.
beginning blowing breeze caution cold consumers days general headlines layoffs newspapers seeing suddenly weakness winter
There's a general sense of weakness and caution and I'll tell you the headlines in the newspapers these days do not help, ... We're seeing more layoffs and consumers are beginning to feel there's a cold winter breeze suddenly blowing their way.