Concerned About the Economy

[JohnH]

Usually we are finished with Christmas shopping well before the last week. But it happened that I needed to stop by the mall last Friday evening and again this evening (Mon Dec 23). I was expecting large crowds, heavy traffic, and lots of parking hassles. In both cases I was surprised to find it easy to park near the entrance and very small crowds inside the mall. It was very convenient insofar as my immediate needs were concerned, but troubling on a larger scale. If this is any sign of the current state of the economy, the upcoming year isn't getting off to a very good start.

[S T]

Not for sure - but there have been some news releases, that more people ordered online - rather than the Storefronts. Seems online sales are up - actual retail/storefronts sales are down. There is bad weather is some parts of the US, and I believe we experienced this year a lesser amount of shopping days from Thanksgiving to Xmas. Not for sure, but can we really trust these "numbers" that are being released. Some articles say the real number won't be arrived at until January 2014.

Also retailers were running Black Friday specials before Black Friday.

I know for sure, I did most all of my shopping online this year, and received free shipping - not so sure how that impacted the US Postal service, UPS and Fed Ex - which could be a concern.

NC jobless rate was posted in the N & O this week at a lower rate, so that seemed good for NC. but then we know some of those figures are not accurate either depending on how they present the statistics. I believe it was published at around 7.4% - Calif was published at 8.5% and I can't believe that figure at all.

Could it be the sign up on the Obamacare, has pre-occupied some people, or possibly added a cost - right at the Holiday time?

Just some thoughts

Sandy

[Roberts]

We wrapped all of our gifts last night.
Probably 40% were purchased online.
Our biggest outlay is probably cash and gift cards as the nieces and nephews are getting too old for junk. (we don't have kids)

We went to the mall on Saturday to pick up a gift card and a small gift for my mom - it was absolutely packed.


The e-economy must be having a massive impact on real estate at the commercial level but I've not seen it. We've effectively lost 2 malls in our city due to closing but they've opened 2 outlet malls that are nearly as large.