Thousands in line

While up early this morning reading the New York Times we came across an opinion column on the editorial page by Stephen S. Roach who opined that personal consumption expenditures are on track for back to back quarterly declines.  He then added, "The good news is that lines should be short for today’s “first shopping day” of the holiday season."

We then turned on the early morning local news which consisted of remote broadcasts from area retail places all over the St. Louis area.  What we saw and heard was that 1000's and 1000's of shoppers not only flooded into the stores when they opened early, but that these same people were out in force, standing in line through the nighttime hours.

Somewhere, I can't find it just now, I read part of a story where a retailer said it looked like things seem to be on pace to equal last year.

It's hard to know what to think of these contradictions, no one will shop this year versus the stores are packed.  Yes, there are sales today, everyone is looking for a bargain, but Black Friday sales have been common practice for years. 

Someone will probably come out tomorrow and say all these shoppers didn't buy anything, but frankly, I'd take that kind of news with a grain of salt.  The cameras do not lie.

Meanwhile out on Long Island, a Wal*Mart worker was killed as shoppers stampeded into to the store at its opening.

Comments

[Rand]

Could not believe I saw campers in line at NOON yesterday in front of a Best Buy. Still, read the following this morning: "This is definitely a hit-and-run mentality," said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group. "They are running in, grabbing the deal and running out. This is what I am seeing this morning." All conjecture from different folks, we won't know until sales figures are in.

I do know this first hand: both business and pleasure travel has been dropping since October - November was awful here in San Diego and December is bleak.