Thread: Shoppers: Wait 'til next year

I keep hearing about the 'bad' retail season
(and from this article, it is looking like retailers have already given up on it)
but when I go to my neighborhood mall,
it is packed.

'Course that is only an observation of one.

Same here. We're going to the mall today, so I'l get a better picture of a weekday.

But the past two weekends, we could hardly find a parking place-- there were THOUSANDS of cars in the lots, and the malls were busier than usual.

Go fugure. :shrugs:

-Russ H.

Originally Posted by Russ H

Same here. We're going to the mall today, so I'l get a better picture of a weekday.

But the past two weekends, we could hardly find a parking place-- there were THOUSANDS of cars in the lots, and the malls were busier than usual.

This can be looked upon as good or bad. Good for obvious reasons, but potentially bad if people are still loading up on bad debt - IOW, "charging" this year's holiday season (yet again). I've heard many people who have had their CC rates go up and/or their credit lines slashed by companies for no reason at all. We're still going through the RE fallout with a potentially larger fallout looming on the horizon: consumer debt. What happens if people get so far over their heads with consumer debt that they stop paying, en masse? We may see the same cycle repeated - and maybe even for the worse.

A'las, some habits are hard to break.

BTW, I heard that many people are forgoing the holiday season altogether and are waiting for the post-holiday season to scoop up the real bargains. I watched a segment on a news program about this and one of the people they interviewed said that 40%, 50%, and even 60% are nice NOW, but she'll wait for after the holiday season when things will REALLY get slashed.