The headlines were ominous…just see below. Retail Sales Slowing. Hogwash. I don’t know why this raises my blood pressure so much, but it is lies, damn lies and government statistics I guess.  What’s the truth?

Headlines from Google News

US Retail has added more sales in 2021 than the entire retail economy for India…read  that again. The growth…in 2021 through 11 months…the growth – only the growth…is $831b USD….for 2020, the entire retail economy for nearly 1.4b people was $814b USD for the year! The growth for November alone?…$91.1b USD…. That’s the total revenue for 2020 for Lowe’s…and just short of Target’s 2020 revenues just north of $93b.

Total retail growth year to year is 18.2%…that’s a $5.5 trillion market growing at 18.2% for the year.  And for the month…20.3%.  Even taking out C-stores and Gas Stations… the growth was 16.5%.  The growth last month?…16.1%…so the growth is accelerating, not slowing.  The detail is below so you can see for yourself.

Add to this that Gift Cards are up 414% for the holiday season and consumers generally spend 25% more than their gift card value when redeemed thus extending the holiday season.

I get it…bad news sells better than good news. But at some point reality has to come into play. And that’s all I got to say about that!