Well, not much today, but there are several aspects to the one story worth reporting.

Christmas Shopping Up and Down

Through the Christmas shopping season, I was seeing apparently conflicting stories about the amount of sales.  Online sales were up, way up.  Meanwhile, malls were seeing fewer people coming through their doors.  The economy was causing problems for many people.  Wages were stagnant, necessitating cost-cutting measures.  Apparently, online shopping allowed people to save on the cost of gas and avoid (non-existant) crowds.  This ties into Steve's post on the closing of Sears and K-Mart stores.  Online shopping is starting to look far more attractive to people for shopping.  Start early enough and the gifts can arrive long before the holidays.

Anecdotally, I delayed my Christmas shopping until the week before and was dreading hitting the malls.  However, the large mall I went to was sparse.  I'd seen larger there on regular weekends.  At the same time, the mall closest to me was busier, but had the advantage of being walking distance from several apartment buildings and seniors residences; but, it, too, wasn't super busy.  However, I didn't go into any mall on the 24th.  I'm crazy, not stupid.  Meanwhile, my sister did most of her shopping online, finding things that can't normally be found locally without great effort.

It looks like the future of retail involves online stores with some hyper specialized stores for items that either can't be shipped safely or are impulse buys.  The U.S. has seen one large bookstore chain fold already.  Up in the Great White (finally!) North, our major bookstore chain has jumped readily into online retail.  Chains not able to follow might not last past the next two years.

–Scott D