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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
If I were to ask you to tell me something true, you would give me this....
Yet, you continue to ignore or otherwise dismiss facts that don't feed your frustrations....
Really, is that why stores are cutting back and fearful this could be a VERY BAD year?
So the economy is getting better? Unemployment keeps going up, foreclosures in some states are still going up, states are close to bankruptcy, and so on.... but the economy is looking up????? That is your point?
washingtonpost.com
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Retailers tighten belts to bring numbers up
Holidays are worrisome, as customers are still holding back
By Ylan Q. Mui
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Retailers cut costs and slashed inventory to reach better-than-expected profits during the third quarter but warned that consumers remain reluctant to shop.
National chains reporting results this week included Macy's, J.C. Penney and Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer. Each raised its business forecasts despite sales declines at stores open at least a year, a key measure of health for retailers.
Retailers have been casting a wary eye on this Christmas season, particularly as the unemployment rate climbed into double digits. The holiday traditionally accounts for as much as 40 percent of all sales for the industry, making it the biggest selling season of the year, and stores are still scarred from last year's bloodletting. On Friday, Reuters and the University of Michigan reported that consumer confidence fell on their index in October to 70.6, down from 73.5 in September. That's still significantly better than the results from a year ago, but a majority of consumers reported that their finances worsened, a sentiment that has now persisted for 13 consecutive months, the longest decline in the survey's 60-year history.
"The ongoing economic recovery will be unlike any other due to changes in consumer spending preferences," said Richard Curtin, director of the survey.
The National Retail Federation, an industry trade group, has predicted that holiday sales will fall 1 percent, to $437.6 billion, well below the 10-year average growth of 3.39 percent. Such gloomy prospects have prompted the industry to gird for battle this season. Retailers spent the early part of the year weeding out underperforming stores and laying off workers to cut costs. They cleared out inventory and reduced the amount of merchandise on shelves. According to the NRF and IHS Global Insight, the amount of cargo imported this year is projected to fall to 12.7 million containers, down nearly 17 percent from last year and the lowest level since 2003.
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At Wal-Mart, inventory plunged 6.2 percent at its U.S. stores during the third quarter, the company said this week. Over the past year, the world's largest retailer reduced domestic inventory by $1.8 billion.
"Few retailers can claim this kind of operating performance," Wal-Mart Vice Chairman Eduardo Castro-Wright told analysts.
That helped push third-quarter earnings up 3 percent to $3.2 billion (84 cents per share), more than the company had previously forecast. But U.S. same-store sales fell 0.4 percent, not including fuel sales, on lower prices for food and consumer electronics. Castro-Wright said Wal-Mart sold 25 percent more televisions during the third quarter than it did a year ago, but the average selling price was down 20 percent.
Wal-Mart said it made up the difference through strong performance in food and health sales. Revenue rose 1.1 percent, to $99 billion. It raised guidance for the year to $3.57 to $3.61, from $3.50 to $3.60.
J.C. Penney said that stocking less inventory is helping the department store sell more products at full price. Though profit dropped 78 percent from a year ago, to $27 million, because of a one-time pension expense, the company said sales were stronger than expected and upgraded it forecasts for annual sales.
"Last year, our industry was over-inventoried and J.C. Penney was not immune from the aggressive clearance selling," chief executive Myron E. Ullman told analysts in a conference call on Friday. "This year is different."
Macy's also saw sales begin to stabilize. The department store chain said it lost $35 million during the third quarter compared with $44 million a year ago. For the entire second half of the year, the retailer said same-store sales are now expected to be down 2.1 to 2.6 percent, a significant improvement from the decline of as much as 6 percent it had previously predicted.
Still, the company acknowledged that its forecasts were still negative and the consumer recovery still tenuous.
"I would be remiss, though, not to mention that there are more uncertainties than usual in the environment," Macy's Chief Financial Officer Karen M. Hoguet said. "Unfortunately, we all just have to wait and see."
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Shall I pull a Host and bring out more?
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Why do you honestly expect me to engage in your rant?
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If you cannot honestly engage, or engage with respect why comment other than to try to look superior?
If you are superior and this "RANT" thread is beneath you why reply at all?
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Perhaps I should engage in my own ranting manner, stating how America's biggest problem is its fear of regulation and socialist programs.
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Go ahead. You may find I may bring a more respectful discourse to yours than you have to mine.
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Your banks need regulation. You have millions of children without access to health care.
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I would argue for bank regulation because it is needed.
Using the old excuse
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millions of children without access to health care
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doesn't work for me anymore. Here in the state of OHIO, they are cracking down on the parents to provide insurance to the kids. If you pay child support you better also provide insurance, even if it bankrupts you. (I know from personal experience.)
The extreme are using that excuse to push through a healthcare bill that will NOT work, except to see people fined and imprisoned.
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The problem isn't with the American leadership. The problem is with the American people.
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Partially correct, it is BOTH the leadership and the people's fault. But the extremist Dems are in power and they like the extremist GOP will never admit fault. Blame the people and opposing side, it's easier and keeps up the division.
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But that is the danger of freedom: you can vote anyone into power, but nothing will happen if Americans continue to be led by the nose through such things as rampant consumerism and false hopes of prosperity...get-rich-quick schemes and keeping up with the Joneses.
Dude, the Joneses are broke, and it isn't the president's fault.
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That explains the people's fault but let's look at a totally out of control spending government that allows out product to be taxed overseas into non competition but refuses to tax imports to this country enough to level the playing field.
Let's look at a country that has regulated and made so many laws it is nearly impossible to manufacture anything here without taking losses because the countries we allow to import to us don't have to play by the same rules and thus can produce the same product more cheaply. Hell, we even allow in toys loaded with lead, poisoned pet food and clothing made in sweatshops. But that's not government's fault... no they can demand our companies be responsible while manufacturing here, but go overseas and import it back and we don't care how you made it or what's in it.
Let's look at a government that taxes it's people 3-4-5-6 times but still overspends.
Let's look at how the parties are run by extremists who refuse to allow centrists any say.
Don't sit there living in another country and tell me what is wrong in my yard. I live it, I see it and unfortunately, until people say enough... the extremists will have their way.
America is always easy to bash for people who don't live here and understand what our freedoms allow us. Sometimes they blow up in our face and we learn from them... well we did in the past now, we just cave to extremists on the side that we don't blame the current explosion on.