Saturday, January 19, 2013

US Holiday Retail Sales Growth Weakest Since 2008 | Reduction

US Holiday Retail Sales Growth Weakest Since 2008

Starship Christmas Tree 1
Starship Christmas Tree 1 by JD Hancock
License (according to Flickr): Attribution License
Excerpt:

U.S. holiday retail sales this year grew at the weakest pace since 2008, when the nation was in a deep recession. In 2012, the shopping season was disrupted by bad weather and consumers' rising uncertainty about the economy. A report that tracks spending on popular holiday goods, the MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, said Tuesday that sales in the two months before Christmas increased 0. 7 percent, compared with last year. Many analysts had expected holiday sales to grow 3 to 4 percent. In 2008, sales declined by between 2 percent and 4 percent as the financial crisis that crested that fall dragged the economy into recession. Last year, by contrast, retail sales in November and December rose between 4 percent and 5 percent, according to ShopperTrak, a separate market research firm. A 4 percent increase is considered a healthy season.

Keywords:

sales percent retail sales market research firm holiday bad weather holiday sales stores holiday retail sales SpendingPulse data economy popular holiday goods steep last-minute discounts percent increase MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse consumers key holiday spending current budget impasse research firm NPD separate market research traditional retail rush Christmas chief research analyst Black Friday weekend Target report revenue overall economic activity retailers shoppers deep recession Last-minute shoppers annual sales weakest pace sales measure unsettling consumers shopping season sluggish economy steeper discounts holiday season Christmas spirit Marshal Cohen Main Street economic growth financial crisis healthy season Superstorm Sandy consumers accounts presidential election retail industry crucial indicator clearer picture

People:

Kris Betzold

Overall Sentiment: 0.0418749

Relevance: 0.329182

SentimentQuote
0.11483"We went out yesterday, and I noticed that the sales were even better now than they were at Thanksgiving," said Betzold ...
Sentiment Stats:
  • Number of Quotes: 1
  • Aggregate Sentiment: 0.11483
  • Mean: 0.11483
  • Standard Deviation: 1.4142135623731

Marshal Cohen

Overall Sentiment: -0.0392244

Relevance: 0.26446

SentimentQuote
0"A lot of the Christmas spirit was left behind way back in Black Friday weekend," Cohen said, ...
0"A lot of the Christmas spirit was left behind way back in Black Friday weekend," Cohen said, referring to the traditional retail rush the day after Thanksgiving. "We had one reason after another for consumers to say, 'I'm going to stick to my list and not go beyond it.'"
Sentiment Stats:
  • Number of Quotes: 2
  • Aggregate Sentiment: 0
  • Mean: 0
  • Standard Deviation: 0

Key:

  • Aggregate Sentiment is meant to be an indicator of an individual's overall sentiment.
  • The Mean is meant to be an indicator of an individual's average comment sentiment.
  • The Standard Deviation, when there are enough quotes, will indicate an individual's consistency of sentiment (i.e. a Standard Deviation of 0 would mean they were very consistent in their sentiment and 1 would mean they were very inconsistent).

Note that quote stats are likely to be meaningless beyond the aggregate score due to the tiny sample size. However, they are always provided just in case you find something useful there.

Additional Info:

FieldTerminology: retail sales

Overall Sentiment: 0

Relevance: 0.80682

Holiday: Christmas

Overall Sentiment: 0.059735

Relevance: 0.394055

Site Meta Tags Info
Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)