Reuters on Retail Numbers . . . WRONG AGAIN.

In response to Lucia Mutikani's article Retail Sales Fall Unexpectedly, Jobless Claims Up . . .

Access Reuters article here

Are you serious?  Unexpectedly.  The whole working world knows that there is instability right now and the unemployed world inclusive of those our government deems indigents also know that there is nothing stable out there in retail. The market is fragile. Wall Street wants prices to climb so for months the headlines have read: retail sales are up, jobless claims are down.  What did you expect to happen in December?  All of sudden all hiring authorities were going to run out and spend money on hiring while the lay person who has been lucky enough to find work (in our outside of their fields) and/or save some money was going to shop? This article highlights "U.S. consumers unexpectedly curbed their Christmas spending in December" - but there was nothing unexpected, and if you take the time to read this article there was actually no dip.  Stores have (like they should) discounted their products with a strong attempt to get that product off their shelves and out the door.  Attributing to the "dip" and seeing the upward revisions of September and October sales numbers, I would expect if we factored in the private numbers, the Ecommerce numbers and wait for more accurate figures, December (versus the two previous years) was more than we could have ever asked for. There is clear instability, but there is no chaos. Let's move forward slowly, steadily and with thoughtfulness as we in retail will see continued better times.