U.S. retail sales dropped by the most in nearly two years in January, likely weighed down by frigid temperatures, wildfires and motor vehicle shortages, suggesting a sharp slowdown in economic growth early in the first quarter.
But the larger-than-expected and across the board decline in retail sales reported by the Commerce Department on Friday probably does not reflect a material shift in consumer spending as it also followed four straight months of hefty increases.
A sharp upward revision to December’s sales took some of the sting from the report. Economists also noted that it was difficult to strip out large seasonal swings from the data at the turn of the year, which was also evident in the January consumer inflation report.
it was the weather, fires, and car shortages. yup. youbetcha. the impending, and now fully-realized and ongoing, doom had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Well yeah those are all parts of the doom.
Whoa full-realized ongoing doom! Guess it’s not getting worse then whew
“Maybe people are getting confused on the tariff story and think they are happening immediately and are therefore not even considering a purchase,” said James Knightley, chief international economist at ING.
Uhm people literally got fucked by some of the tariffs going into effect immediately???
Trump had to pump the brakes on that shit it was breaking down so fast.
How are we so sure it’s not people being reasonable about not knowing what is coming? I expect it to keep tanking because Trump is literally unpredictable. The only thing that’s predictable about him is chaos.
I agree. People got charged 50 bucks tariffs on 10 dollar’s worth of items for a few days.
i read about a couple of those, and just figured those were probably rogue contractors for dhl or whoever scamming recipients.
just figured those were probably rogue contractors for dhl or whoever scamming recipients.
Nope:
“I am now stuck with $30,000 of items I can’t move across the border, the lifeblood of my business,” says Leslie Brown, the owner of a Canadian secondhand clothing company that sells to US shoppers on eBay and Poshmark. Yesterday, Brown published a blog post on Medium titled “Donald Trump Will Kill My Business.”
US customers who placed orders on shopping websites like the popular Chinese fast-fashion platform Shein have been particularly impacted, even if they made their purchases long before the tariffs were announced. They are now forced to either pay hefty fees—in some cases, more than the value of the items inside—or have their packages sent back.
“The Art of the international deal”
After the election but before the inauguration we bought a replacement refrigerator before we absolutely needed to because the one we were looking at was made in Mexico. It seems kind of conspiratorial to buy it when, at that time, Trump was just muttering about tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Now it looks like good forethought and planning.
My dad also moved up his plans to buy a Ford Maverick specifically because of the Mexico tariffs. (They finally made the AWD Hybrid version he wanted to replace his old Ranger that has 240k miles on it.)
With the number of parts and final assembly done in Mexico, it would have probably increased the price of the truck by more than 10k.I went ahead and replaced my furnace that I’d been putting off doing for as long as possible, knowing it needed replaced soon before it failed, but trying to get another winter out it. Went ahead and pulled the trigger in January before tariffs.
Could’ve probably limped my furnace and water heater on a few more years.
However thought “Dunno how long that’s gonna take and if they shit the bed during I’m proper fucked.” and replaced them.
It is. At best the tariffs didn’t happen and you wouldn’t have been saving money, so it makes sense to plan for the worst.
I’ve been thinking about a new car, but I did the math and even with a price hike it would make financial sense for me to wait.
Yeah, we’re in Canada. I made a big purchase because I was expecting tariffs to tank the Canadian dollar.
I’m happy to say that neither of those things have happened. Yet.
Get ready for the Canadian dollar to be worth more than the US dollar.
looks over to my jar of loonies and toonies
i might just have a retirement fund after all.
What’s weird about this is that lots of people and especially businesses were rushing to make purchases and stock up or replace old appliances ahead of expected tariffs. So theoretically you would have expected January to see increased sales.
They are talking retail purchases here. Businesses buying equipment wouldn’t necessarily be part of that stat
True
Saving the acorns for the upcoming economic winter
I expect it to be (more or less) permanent
