Anne D’Innocenzio, writing for the Associated Press, reports that retail sales were grim over the holiday season. Possibly I’m imagining things, but it seems like this is part of the annual pattern of reporting on holiday sales. First there is reporting that “black Friday” sales are expected to be below average — along with the annual reminder of how important such sales are to retailers and how nervous they are about their prospects. Then, black Friday comes along and the initial reporting is that sales were brisk and things may not have been so bad after all. Then, when all the numbers are in, things weren’t very good after all.
This year was particularly bad with consumer sales down between 5.5 – 8%. It’s quite the dichotomy for the citizen looking to do the good thing when you think about it. Americans are constantly chastised for their low rate of saving and overspending. But, then when they do the responsible thing and pull back their spending in light of limited resources, the economy is doomed.
Based on local (Indianapolis) reporting:
• The “Here Comes the Potential for Black Friday Doom and Gloom” reports are generally tosses to a network economics beat reporter, who should know better; there’s not a single local hairdo I’ve seen who conveys enough economic knowledge to offer an opinion, though they’ll parrot the Conventional Wisdom if it’s put in front of ’em.
• But only to a point. Forty years of Happy Talk, Mindless Banter, and Don’t Say Anything To Upset Anyone Unless It Concerns a Sex Scandal, Celebrity Inebriation, or Violent Crime Committed by the Lower Classes coverage has taken a toll, and local economic news is now largely given over to cheerleading and inciting covetousness over electronic gizmos. (This goes on all year long now.)
• Local “Black Friday” coverage consists of aerial shots of mall parking lots while field reporters inside said malls marvel over how busy they are. They may stick a microphone in a few shoppers’ faces (“We’re mainly looking for bargains”) or let some assistant manager describe the crowds.
• When the bad news comes (haven’t three of the last four Christmases underperformed in retail?) we’re back to the national reporters; the locals are chitter-chattering about Cyber Monday or Kohl’s return policy.
• The thought’s not original with me, certainly, but these are people who make three-five times the average wage of their audience (or more), who’re local celebrities and the beneficiaries of all sorts of perks, generally from the advertisers whose business pays for those salaries. And local news is the single biggest chunk of a station’s revenue. It’s no wonder the timbre of economic coverage is Feelgoodism mingled with what effect it has on the upper and upper-middle classes. When gas hit $3/gal and the national housing market slumped in 2007 all the locals cared about was the property tax revolt. Once real estate prices hit home and it started to cost $100 to fill up the family Panzer they suddenly noticed–and reported the day’s action on the Dow as though it were the national economic report card.
• Channel 13 is actually running a PSA (“in cooperation with local auto dealers”) informing a worried public that there’s plenty of loan money available to buy that new car. Again, they don’t make any money off people putting money in a savings account.
Just because we’ll stomp somebody to death to get in the store doesn’t necessarily mean we’re gonna spend money once we’re inside.
I think part of the reason is some of these sales have been going on pretty much all year. I usually shop at Kohl’s for ties, and shirts and their prices have been slashed all year. The shirts were just about the same price they have been every time they launched a sale. I would the say the exception to this was on black friday when all the HD tv’s were on sale.