Kurt Barnard

Kurt Barnard
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July was surprisingly strong -- consumers are on a buying spree, ... Remember the old saying 'Shop till they drop'? Now it has become 'Shop till they shop some more.'
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Consumer spending had been in decline before this awful tragedy happened. Now comes this additional damper. Considering we are living in state of shock, sorrow and sadness, we really can't expect people to just go out on wild shopping binges.
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E-commerce is growing exponentially, and it is not at all unreasonable to think that simply because the store essentially, or a whole horizon of stores, happens to be right on your desk, that shopping is made so much easier than before,
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Wal-Mart's news is a very big deal. There's no doubt that a significant number of consumers are shopping paycheck to paycheck. Most are also waiting for price reductions. So saying that the consumer is still cautious is a good indicator that the holiday season will only be moderately better than last year.
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Wal-Mart's news is a very big deal, ... There's no doubt that a significant number of consumers are shopping paycheck to paycheck. Most are also waiting for price reductions because they know that the support of another tax rebate or tax reduction is unlikely. So saying that the consumer is still cautious is a good indicator that the holiday season will only be moderately better than last year.
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This loss will be easily made up, ... If I want to buy some jewelry for my wife, do you think I'm going to let one snow storm stop me? No, I won't. Consumers will get their shopping done this week and in the days leading up to Christmas.
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Kohl's did a few things that made the shopping experience easier, ... They introduced shopping carts, centralized checkout counters and an easy-to-shop store layout.
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Retailers know that for a lot of consumers, this is a time of uncertainty about their jobs, ... This will make them frugal with their holiday shopping and they will be on the hunt for the best deals out there.
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The fourth quarter is going to reflect the intensely promotional nature of the holiday shopping season, make no mistake.
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What the Gap is doing is not only what it must be doing, but what it should have done a long time ago.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.