Some startling figures are out about consumer spending during the holiday shopping season as it appears people are keeping their wallets closed more often this year.
The drop off in consumer spending wasn’t real drastic, but with Black Friday and the start of holiday shopping, retailers don’t usually expect a drop at all and it was basically across the board.
The Antiques Colony store on West San Carlos Street in San Jose has been a popular place for more than 50 years. General partner Craig Trimble expected the usual shopping surge as the holidays approached.
“And it didn’t happen this year in October or November and I really think people were worried about the election that was coming up and people talking about inflation and things like that,” he said.
Antiques Colony followed a national trend. The Commerce Department said that overall retail sales fell by almost 1% last month, that’s more than $4 billion.
Furniture, even antiques and dropped about 3% with building materials and motor vehicles and parts dipping as well.
A trip to a South Bay mall didn’t inspire confidence for some shoppers..
“When I’m in the mall I don’t see the big crowds and I don’t see a lot of people holding a lot of bags. I feel over the pandemic and the economy the way it is, people are kind of holding on to their dollars a little bit more,” said shopper Stephen Davis.
San Jose State professor Benny Boveda, an expert on retail management said that he believes Christmas bargains and consumer confidence will help.
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“There might be some good deals out there. Especially if the consumer feels and that’s obviously what we’re banking on, that the economy will stabilize, the job market will still stay strong and if inflation is in check, I think we will see definitely better sales to kind of wrap up the year,” he said.
Antiques Colony is starting to see it.
“I think it’s a lot of pent up demand. I think people, they hold back in shopping when they’re worried about things. But Christmas is going to be here and they’ve got to buy presents. So yeah, they’re going to go ahead and spend that money,” he said.
Antiques Colony and many other retailers are not just waiting for shoppers to show up .. and hopefully their strategies and optimism will pay off.
