Ah - Christmas. It came and went, and for that, I am thankful. I won’t gush into what Christmas means to me; I’m an atheist, so there’s no deep religious undertones for me anyways. I will, however, cover what Christmas means to retail - money. The story is somewhat mixed, too. BusinessWeek reports that numbers are up slightly, though people are being much more cost-conscious this year. Instapundit, meanwhile, has a host of links to various reports on the Christmas shopping season, some of them more positive than others. The biggest problem is that sales aren’t keeping up with inflation anymore, which is understandable - inflation is currently being driven by higher commodity prices, and, since the housing market is finally correcting itself, we’re beginning to see some effects from them.

Then again, there are some anecdotal reports that much of what’s hurting the retail numbers this year is that women’s fashion was just way off. That’s alluded to here and is also expounded on quite eloquently by Rachel Lucas here. My girlfriend feels the same way, and she actually IS a “starving” 5′10″ woman. Heck, we actually laughed at some of the offerings in JC Penney a few weeks back, marveling at the bright fake satin vests. The lady there claimed they were “very popular”. To this day, I’ve yet to see anyone wearing one.

Either way, if you’re looking for some good bargains, now is the time… heck, I have a couple of people I didn’t get presents for that I might try to scrounge something up for now. *grin*

EDIT: Welcome, Instalanchers! Feel free to visit, look around, and maybe stop by and leave a comment or two. I’m relatively new at this, so I’m always open to suggestions. Also, on the off and rare chance that you’re a University of Nevada football fan (Go Wolf Pack!), feel free to check out my other blog at FireChrisAult.com. Thanks again!

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