One way to get a sense of how Americans feel about the economy is through retail sales. Consumer demand drives about seventy percent of the nation's economic activity.
The National Retail Federation says its members employ twenty-five million people in the retail and services industry. Those businesses reported almost two and a half trillion dollars in sales last year.
The Monday after Thanksgiving is a big day for Internet shopping. Online sales during Cyber Monday have grown since the day got its name in 2005
Terry Lundgren is chief executive of Macy's, the company that owns Macy’s and Bloomingdales department stores.
TERRY LUNDGREN: "Retail and restaurants represent one in five jobs in America. So if we do well, we grow, than we’re going to be the ones that will start to lead us into a recovery and out of the difficulty that we've had in terms of job hiring, unemployment and all of those challenging issues that relate to that."
The kinds of stores where sales are up also says something about the economy. Stores with the lowest prices do well in hard economic times. But the retail federation said at the end of November that discounters had fewer shoppers this year. Stores that sell jewelry and other higher-priced items have seen sales grow.
Another change: Americans are less willing to buy on credit. Over forty percent of holiday shoppers said they planned to mainly use debit cards instead of credit cards. Instead of borrowing money, debit cards take money directly from a bank account.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25