Gourmet Business February 2015

Positive Signs Prevail

Dreams really do come true. I was, admittedly, a little pessimistic about the predictions for a stellar holiday spending result.  I had hoped that some worries over the weak sales results earlier in the year would be washed away as consumers finally opened up their wallets in force. There seemed to be a lot riding on the bet that the predicted spending would happen, and I didn’t want to think about the repercussions throughout our economy if it didn’t come to fruition.

I was relieved to hear from many retailers that I polled in person early this year that it indeed was a great holiday season. There have been plenty of smiles, and trade show attendance has been robust so far, leading me to believe that business was good all the way around.

I recently received some real economic data to support this theory, and I was so pleasantly surprised, I wanted to share it with you. The University of Michigan’s final consumer sentiment index was reported as 98.1, which was even greater than the December 2014 index of 93.6. The real take-away is that the index is the highest it has been since January 2004! I am trying to think back 11 years to the economic state of our country, and my recollection is that life was pretty good, and there was plenty of discretionary income to purchase items of desire.

To back up this very positive message of hope, I usually like to see other data pointing in the same direction. Looking at the Conference Board index for validation, it also showed the highest level since August 2007. Finally, I took note that the Commerce Department reported that real consumer spending jumped at an annual rate of 4.3 percent last quarter, which was the strongest buying rate since early 2006. It seems that the positive signs prevail, which means it’s time to stop worrying about the economy and, instead, turn our attention back to growing the business in our industry.

With the economic fears now behind us, let’s move on to the good stuff, and go buy some great products to stock on store shelves and satisfy the consumers’ appetite for great housewares. Of course, we will depend on our suppliers to deliver some exciting new products to market.  I am happy to report that you will be pleasantly surprised, since I have seen a lot of interesting introductions that will be covered in the pages of Gourmet Business in the coming months.

Happy hunting!

David Spencer
Publisher, Gourmet Business 

President, HousewaresDirect, Inc. 

dspencer@gourmetbusiness.com