Those of you who are keen financially minded individuals will note exactly what is happening in these recent reports, HOME DEPT HERE – TARGET HERE. Those of you who are retail investors in the stock market might also see the bigger picture.
Home Depot and Target essentially share the same customer base or market audience. They service a larger segment of the American middle class. Both companies are reporting negative financial outcomes as a result of low comparable sales, or same store sales comparisons, to last year. This should not be a surprise, yet Wall Street is seemingly caught off guard.
Right now, we are on the tail end of the massive inflation cycle that took place in 2021 through 2022. Current inflation, as measured by the rate of price increase over the same period last year, is lower.
Now we are starting to see companies reporting sales comparable without the benefit of massive inflation to assist.
Example – when inflation is running at 10%, a company can report 8% sales growth, and everyone smiles. However, the sales growth was created by the inflation. The actual unit sales of goods have declined; the store is reporting higher sales because the prices are higher. When the sales cycle through to lower inflationary comparisons, the drop in unit sales shows up as drops in topline sales. This is the cause of both Target and Home Depot now reporting lower than expected comparable sales versus last year.
In real terms, this is why using sales data as a measure of economic growth is less valuable during periods of high inflation. Significant inflation hides the diminished sales of units, which should be the true measure of sales growth. I have been tracking unit sales as a measure of economic activity, and the truth is that unit sales have been declining since the fourth quarter of 2021.
Inflation was hiding the recession, and as the rate of price increase diminishes, the sales contraction will show the recession. This is what Target and Home Depot are reporting, and we can all expect to see the same over the next 90 days. Retail stocks will drop as the earnings and sales reports are revised down due to lower inflation.
Wall Street Journal – Target sales suffered in the most recent quarter as shoppers stopped splurging as frequently on trendy clothes, home goods and other items that make up the bulk of the retailer’s annual revenue.
Comparable sales, those from stores and digital channels operating for at least 12 months, came in flat for the quarter ended April 29 compared with the same period last year. That is slightly lower than the previous quarter’s 0.7% rise and lower than analysts’ expectations for a 0.2% sales rise in the most recent quarter, according to estimates from FactSet.
Sales of food and beverage, beauty and home essentials such as detergent rose, while demand for apparel, home goods and items such as toys and electronics fell sharply in the most recent quarter as shoppers further pulled back on discretionary spending, said Target executives on a call with analysts Wednesday. The latter discretionary categories make up around 54% of Target’s annual sales, according to financial filings. (read more)
Reuters – Home Depot Inc (HD.N) on Tuesday cut its annual sales forecast and projected a steeper-than-expected decline in profit, stoking fears about inflation-wary consumers trimming discretionary spending as a big earnings week for U.S. retailers rolls out.
Shares of the largest U.S. home improvement chain, which also blamed a wet start to Spring and falling lumber prices for a first-quarter sales miss, tumbled about 4%, while those of smaller rival Lowe’s Cos Inc (LOW.N) dropped nearly 3%.
[…] Demand was weak for discretionary items like patio furniture and grills, as well as appliances, flooring, kitchen and bath, said William Bastek, executive vice president of merchandising at Home Depot.
[…] Home Depot now expects fiscal 2023 comparable sales to fall between 2% and 5%, compared to its prior outlook for nearly flat sales. (read more)
Next up…. Walmart
The other issue that both stores are facing, which neither is allowed to mention, is the MASSIVE increase in losses due to shoplifting, specifically in predominantly blue cities/states. The media portrays it as not a big deal and implies that large companies can simply absorb the losses but at close to $1000 a pop all day, every day, it DOES add up!
Seems so-called food deserts were created by locusts of the two legged variety.
Of the five-finger variety?
Exactly and store like Kroger’s don’t want to do anything about it.
My higher end Kroger , QFC, Seattle suburb, installed electronic gates that create all kinds of racket if you leave without going through the check stands.
They ring all the time and no employee even pays attention.
I’ve seen people back their car up to the front entrance; load the trunk and drive off.
I suggested to the manager they needed to go before the city council to get some police assistance and hAve the patrons who dont like the shoplifting increase in prices come to speak.
They just looked at me.
In reality, I know Kroger is a part of the government corporatist structure but saw it first hand.
It is disgusting,
There’s something truly wrong with that. Do those managers and employees not understand that if this continues, they will lose their jobs? Perhaps they’re just waiting for government money.
Or have the COVID jabs so messed with people that they just don’t know how to take initiative?
Retail workers are told not to confront shoplifters. Retail stores rarely have a police presence. The security guard at Target is obviously not much of a deterrent either.
I own a retail store and my policy regarding thugs is: we don’t dial 911.
Ok. That’s what you don’t do. So what DO you do?
Dial 811. Call before you dig.
You win!
Saw the meme the other day.
🤣🤣🤣
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner! (Needed the laugh.)
LOL!
Sure thing, buddy. How many shoplifters have you gunned down? I’m betting zero.
Yeah, right. Most DAs in this country would charge you with some level of murder for killing someone over a pack of cigarettes or even a shopping cart full of merchandise.
You must only be killing white people otherwise we would have heard about your killing spree.
I worked in women’s specialty retail shop in Central Florida with its headquarters in NYC. Our owner, progressive female, had a philosophy that a person shoplifters because they need the item. Shoplifting a $200 scarf, or a $500 sweater is not a need.
The Home Depot in my town has a State trooper in the store at all times. They park their vehicles right in front of the front door also as an additional deterrent.
They’re doing what they’re told by the higher ups.
YES,
Those who took the Bio-Chemical Weapon jab have lowered immunity, lack normal decision making,
cognitive abilites reduced, fog brain causing slow reaction time.
They are doing as the management from the big corporate hedge fund owners tell them to do.
They have no say in it.
It costs the stores too much in time and money to prosecute, and then there is the possibility of lawsuits from the thieves if a mistake was made somehow, or from workers that may be injured. I worked at WM and witnessed a person running out the door with a computer. Back then we had store security, who caught them. WM never sent someone to the hearing, so charges were dropped.
I went to court to prosecute a shoplifter about 25 years ago. The prosecutor comes up to me and says, “Your looking for restitution, right?” I said, “No, I just want him prosecuted.” That put a smile on his face. He said, “You’d never get a dime because he has a drug habit.” He then took me into a side room. The guy had a rap sheet probably three pages long and was out on parole. They put him back in jail.
Around that same era, I showed a few teenagers the door who were skateboarding in the aisles of the store, and not the first time they’d done so. I grabbed one by the shoulder and walked him out. They went down the street to a telephone booth and dialed 911. I was handcuffed and taken to the station and charged with assault. They did not show up for court and I had it expunged. But, you’d better think twice before touching someone-even when it is for their own good, especially these days.
I’m south of you in Vancouver, and the Kroger’s are in a pitch of uneasiness, to the point of asking the strapped guy in the security uniform if I can have a cart while handling a tray of plants. Its totally awful.
Yeah, like I’m going to abscond with them.
When Trader Joes’s hired armed guards at the local store, we all knew its gone over to the dark side. Smallish store, lots of worker bees, cool customers, the freaking thieves have ruined the happy experience.
It’s like I tell my daughter who attends a famously liberal university in a famously liberal town who has come to reject and disown said liberal values to a surprising degree for one so young in age: “You get what you allow”.
So don’t shop there!
I love those alarms! Whenever one goes off in a store, I yell “RUN!!!”
Embarrasses the wife to no end
🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣
You sound like my husband, who, whenever we get in an elevator at a hotel with other people, “So what’s your name again?”
And me with my usual, “Stop that.”
Good laugh for all. 🤣
In Denver Kroger fired a couple of employees for stopping theft. Apparently, it’s for their own safety. Footage America has gone mad.
“Corporate.” Wish I knew how to edit on this iPad.
Go to the far right of the message once you’ve posted it (and already cussed under your breath) and there’s a tiny circle jagged edged thingy. If you hold it just right, there will appear te word, “Edit.”
You may have to be patient or have better dexterity than I do.
But the “edit” function times out after a few minutes. So proofread quick!
Even better, proofread before hitting the “Post Comment” button.
They looked at you because
-they have probably done this already
-if you are a citizen witnessing this, YOU should be demanding law enforcement do something or soon it will be your house.
-Kroger could close this store…..what do you do??
Move??
I think that most retail workers understand that they do not want to die while trying to stop a shoplifter or a group of shoplifters. They understand that their employer should pay an armed police officer to stand at the door every hour but their employer cannot afford or will not consider that option.
Why would I die trying to save merchandise?
At the local Walmart there was a gal who quit; a real good employee, watched over people at the self check out like a hawk, game them “assistance” when clearly they had a cart ful and had no intention of paying for it all–wh was told not to apprehend, not to question, not to “help” anybody. Disgusting.
Target reports a HALF BILLION in theft losses for the year! What corporation can survive that? Hey Rashida Talib! Youze gotz yer reparations, yo!
Target Set to Lose $500 Million in Profits; CEO Cites Organized Retail Crime as Main Culprit
“Organized” by whom? Go woke, go broke?
Corporations that support UN’s open borders pact/ freebies and general UNiparty lawlessness will reap what they sow. And that goes for their investors, as well.
I suspect these WEF-approved officers and boards of directors haven’t the mental capacity to think this One World Order through to its logical conclusion. Perhaps this is because their limited brain activity has already been ‘outsourced’ to an AI tech platform.
Target did mention it in their report. I didn’t read Home Depot so I can’t say. The CEO says the theft is organized.
I have head that Acme supermarkets use face recognition technology to keep people out of their stores. They don’t confront the perps in the act but they will call cops to escort/arrest the shoplifter next time they enter any Acme location.
‘Smart’ buildings.
Now you see why they are letting it happen, and the covid shopping permission pass was the beta test. They will require digital id so you can shop, you know, to control shoplifting, then your id is linked to social score, and control is complete. They control you food.
Excellent point!
Here in Ontario minimum wage has been jacked up so high that most stores are using self check outs.
My niece works at a grocery store. Most people are stealing as they go through these self check outs.
Liberal govts are so destructive. They create an environment where jobs are destroyed. I guess corporations have done the math and figure it is more cost effective to have stealing than pay absurdly high wages. 🤷♂️
DD
You get to write off theft on tax forms as losses. You don’t get a write off for raising wages.
Raising wages is a raise in business expenses. Of course it’s a write off.
You answered yourself. It’s still an expense. A write off only lessens the tax liability.
There is a cost to the lawlessness. Politicians can ignore the lawlessness but businesses can’t.
Any business that closes stores because of shoplifting losses is making a good business decision.
Unfortunately, honest citizens in those areas are harmed in two ways (1) general lawlessness and (2) the things they need to live their daily lives are no longer readily available.
Meanwhile, politicians continue to push their political agendas. They will continue to do so, just as long as enough voters continue to vote them and their kind into office.
It’s good for Amazon
Target did report that organized looting is costing it $500 million in profits. That’s a huge number, but don’t expect them to be honest and say what the underlying causes are, or how it could be stopped. The shareholders should just suck it up. Screw all the woke corporations. Shop at small local businesses, and let’s watch the big public monopolies go broke.
I haven’t gone to Target since they said men could go in the ladies room. Now they’re pushing binders and tucks and lgbt baby attire. We should all abandon it and be glad if they go under.
It’s a shame as I used to like the store years ago.
Me, too. That bathroom thing did it! Awful that all Americans didn’t push back then. Look where we are now.
I went in recently to a Target and saw on the billboard on the wall an obese, black women lying down like a beached whale in a bikini. They’re pushing every woke agenda there is now.
Read up on Mark Dayton, and you will have a better understanding of what’s going on with Target.
The people I know from Minnesota despise him with a fierceness that is simply amazing. Forget that “Minnesota Nice” stuff. They want him dead, preferably as painfully as possible.
I do not shop at Target – but I do shop at Home Depot, as most of the the smaller hardware and appliance stores in my area have gone out of business, sadly.
I very much believe that was part of the plan during the COVID19 lockdowns. The big box stores, with their woke policies and globalist boards, got to stay open, while all the mom and pop small businesses were forced to close.
It’s also very interesting to see how many family members of the big players in DC sit on those corporate boards. Nice way to get in with the Congresscritters, I would imagine – give their deadbeat kid or airhead spouse a seat that pays 50k a year! Just more of the same grift IMHO!
Many store chains use sales and profit based formulas to allocate total employee work hours to specific stores. Miss your numbers and your hours are cut.
Shoplifting losses can go straight to the employees pocket. With respect to cooperatives, shoplifting losses steal dividends from members. Costco has the best business model right now as you need a membership card to get into the store. That should mitigate shoplifting.
Some small retailers are trying the wall of shame and posting pictures of shoplifters. Large stores will not do that.
I think the wall of shame that includes personal information (regardless of age) should be instituted.
I agree best business model; COSTCO is safer, customers polite and parking spaces with more room.I live by small town on North Coast WA and drive 75 miles each way to buy at COSTCO or HOME DEPOT.I don’t see much shoplifting, but I am old with poor vision and hearing.
“is the MASSIVE increase in losses due to shoplifting,”
I wonder if the losses can be expensed in a way that they are not reflected in “earnings”. Probably not, but it would make numbers look better if they could.
I wish we could go back to the days when people trying to high tail it out of stores with merchandise hidden under their shirt were tackled and pummeled and literally hog tied until the police could arrive.
Pretending to not be in a recession coming to an end sometime soon?
Frankly, at the rate we are going, and the radical societal whammies being perpetrated upon us, I would not be surprised to see us in a Depression before too terribly long, but don’t see many folks discussing it, like perhaps they’re hiding in hopes it won’t find them.
Maybe that’s Wall Street’s deal, trying to whistle past the open skyscraper windows . . . or do they buy the WH bull?
Today at Home Depot there were 100s of pallets of garden supplies stacked all over the parking lot. The inside area of the lawn and garden area was completely stocked. It’s getting well into the planting season here in the Inland NW. Having gone to that same location for over
20 years it was fairly evident they were way overstocked. There were actually some markdowns on some common items like mulch etc. Never seen that before during this time of the year.
That is interesting.
I am pondering whether they were truly “overstocked”. Maybe they have the usual inventory, but it’s just that people dont have the disposable income for landscaping.
I experienced the same thing here. I’ve bought our hanging baskets, annuals and vegetables from the same greenhouse for years. I usually buy them at the beginning of May to get the pick of the litter. I bring them home and move them in and out of a heated building at night to protect them from frost. This year we were running a couple weeks behind schedule and I figured things would be pretty well picked over but to my surprise the place was still full stocked right up to the day before Mothers Day. I have a friend that works there and she said traffic has been unusually light.
I got three really nice healthy tomato plants for $2.25 a plant at the local Fred Meyer.
Just picked up my tomato plants from mom’s greenhouse. Free. She ALWAYS grows too many. In September we look under her couch and beds to see how many she has ripening 🤣.
Overflow inventory from HD, Target, WM, etc., has been abundant in online auctions at Goodwill and other auction sites for the last two years. Brand new stuff for 20% retail price, sometimes even less if you’re lucky. Stock up now, it isn’t going to last much longer…
Target also reported that their loss from shop lifting was close to $1 billion in the last year. Walmart lost around $3 billion.
So far here in Porterville, Tulare County, CA we aren’t seeing much of the stealing. Nothing is behind locked glass doors or anything like that. The major change I see is the stores are just empty of people shopping. Few people and mostly empty carts.
Is it possible that companies like Target are reporting what they say they lost through shoplifting is instead their covering for how bad the economy really is? I mean if you say it’s shoplifting then you don’t have to admit it’s a recession or a depression? Suspicious cat is looking their way.
That’s how it came off to me. Target always goes out of their way to make their earnings sound fantastic and their stooges in the financial media cheerfully report how swell everything is and boycotts? What boycotts? But Target had another terrible quarter.
Great point.
Possibly, but shoplifting is a very real and very large problem in all Democrat run urban areas, without exception. Lawlessness abounds while law enforcement shrinks. This is the Communists’ planned tactic of applying more Cloward-Piven strategies (overloading the social costs) to further collapse both the economy and our formerly constitutional federal republic.
How do they cover their reports of we bought X amount of widget A and sold Y amount of them and Z amount was stolen? How do they cover the actual sale of them and hide them in inventory shrinkage?
I’m not trying to be contrary. I am trying to understand how they do that within correct accounting methods. If it was “sold” at a cash register or online then how do they cook the books to show that it was never sold and merely stolen?
I wonder if their accounting methods are only as correct as they say they are. Somehow losing millions and billions to shoplifting (yes there are lots of shoplifters!) staggers my mind, but Billions? Criminal rings like the mafia or the cartels? I reserve the right to question their accounting. Question everything.
A loss is a loss and the manner of how it is claimed (theft, damage, unsold etc.) only matters as it is filed on the business’ 1040 C and what the value of said goods was when they were purchased versus when they were sold or lost through theft damage et. al.
Maybe they hide it in lay-a-way. 🤣
Back in ’06-’07 I sat in my sleeper every night watching the MSM literally talk this country into a recession.It became a self fulfilling prophecy. It also paved the way for a lieutenant of the Anti Christ to rise up and win the Presidential election. Now we are in a recession and have been for quite awhile and….nothing.
Don’t be fooled by Home Depot and even stalwart Tractor Supply trying to blame the weather for the lower sales. The Northeast big metros had hardly any snow this winter.
And except for a short two day cold spell in the Northeast, the winter was quite mild.
Tractor Supply budweisered themselves to an extent by being a sponsor of a drag queen show in Waco. Was not appreciated.
Pro Tip: Anytime a major company cites weather as a cause for lower sales, it is a telltale sigh of bu!!shit.
Of course, the weather can impact a few stores in a city/state, but overall impact is immaterial (except things like hurricane Katrina, Ian…)
Also notice how they never say “we sold more stuff because the weather was great”…
My inner conspiracy theorist thinks they are prepping the everyday sheep (idoits) so they can blame the Recession (really Depression) on climate change.
Home Depot and Lowe’s have both in the past cited good weather as a reason for increased sales. Weather really does have a big impact on home improvement sales. Obviously, horrendous weather (hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.) can have a hugely positive impact on sales. I haven’t read the Home Depot report yet, but I will.
Some 43 years ago I studied macro and microeconomics in college. I didn’t do very well in those courses.
But the D.C. and Big Club malfeasants run things as if we’re living in Opposite Universe—they do things exactly wrong.
It’s like they’re doing this on purpose.
They are.
It’s called the Marxist Lifestyle Correction.
AKA the ‘Great Reset,’ so these fascists can rise from the ashes of the free world to “build back better” (better for THEM, that is.)
Sometimes they are and sometimes they’re just stupid.
The Home Depot near me has replaced their self-checkout with assisted self-checkout, likely to stem retail theft losses.
My Home Depot has LOCKED UP anything of any value … I have to get a clerk who has a key to help me … who then has to walk me to the cashier. Too much trouble. I just stopped going to Home Depot (Concord, CA) … and I tired of the hundreds of illegal alien day laborers in the parking lot … they accost me on my way to and from the car. Too much trouble. Not worth the “cut rate” prices.
Totally weird to have the clerk babysit the orbital sander($75) I wanted to buy. Was the 15 minutes spent standing in line worth the wage cost for HD? Dunno. Seriously, I felt like a suspect. Not good
My wife gets weekly Safeway coupon flyers electronically. She noticed that the zip code for the flyer is for Oakland Ca.
Pork and beef prices per pound are an average 1.00 per lb LESS in Oakland than our store here in Olympia Wa.
We concluded it must be because of the high African- American population and poor people living in Oakland versus here in Olympia.
Pork Chops @ .99 per lb in Oakland
Same @ 1.99 per lb in Olympia
I doubt the cost difference has to do with the socio-economic status of buyers. Possibly has to do with transportation from CA to WA? Or the store’s sourcing of the meat products? Or state taxes? Or the quality difference of the cut?
Maybe….Don’t know the sourcing, but our sales taxes are 10.1%.
I thought 8.6% in Vancouver was hideous. Safeway and Kroger have marginal meat unless your going to make roast or a stew. When on sale, we love stew and pot roast, and are happy to have it.
We have little Mexico now in Tulsa and the African community. Lil Mexico is Mexican stores owned by Mexicans, lil Africa is stores owned by some middle eastern peoples and the prices are extremely high, barred windows and doors. Lil Mexico all sorts of crap and food, usually cheap. Lil Africa is dying, lil Mexico is growing.
In 2005 I worked in Compton, CA. It has always been known to be a high concentration of Blacks. You may remember the gang wars of the Krypts and the Bloods. Anyway, eventually lots of Mexican moved there because rent was cheap. They set up businesses, even the daily walking carts with bells, selling chips and ice cream on the sidewalks. There were maybe one or two black owned businesses, one being a salon for corn rows and extensions. The Mexicans were extremely industrious, while the Blacks languished and expected handouts. Compton is now predominately Mexican. Not sure what is going to happen IF the gov puts the illegals in their midst.
Don’t count on it. Before I left the Atlanta area, certain brand name stores had lower prices away from African American and lower socio economic groups areas than in the predominantly white suburbs and rural areas that were further away from logistics facilities (higher transportation).
Also had a step brother who worked part time for a while in ‘loss prevention’ (security) at Target. Told us outright one year at Christmas dinner that the pricing at each store is definitely affected by ‘high loss’ areas.
Should have heard some of the stories about how shop lifting and theft rings ravaged stores and they were limited as to what they could do or not do because of the local authorities’ lack of authorized capabilities by the local politicians or unwillingness due to sympathetic political views.
The stories would have blown your mind then. I can’t even imagine now.
The county where my local college town sits has a strange price phenomenon – prices for everything including gasoline, food, building supplies, are 15% higher across the board than in surrounding counties. BTW, as a very blue city the taxes are also very high as you would expect.
You can see that in all sales, not just groceries. Retail stores’ websites will show you different prices depending on what ZIP code they see you in. Some online-only retailers do it, too.
I live and shop at the Safeway in zip code 94549. White (and Asian) suburbia, East of Oakland. I pay the $$ HIGHEST $$ food prices than anywhere other than Hawaii. So … no … it’s NOT “the shipping cost” to Washington State. Just as Las Vegas Hotel rates go WAY UP $$ during Super Bowl week and March Madness … so too does Safeway price their food on “the ability to pay” … zip code by zip code. I live in an area where the AVERAGE household income is right around $150k/yr. … and Safeway believes it is OWED a piece of that largesse.
And no … it’s not about the high property cost in white (and Asian) suburbia … because Safeway has owned their 94549 property since at least the 1950’s. Their store property has been paid off generations ago.
It’s the same thing with all the gasoline stations. Gas prices 10 min. East of my zip code are $0.60 – $1.20/gal. cheaper. Again … commodities are priced on “the ability to pay” … so the people living in my zip code get gouged. I choose to drive 10 min. to fill my tank … because it’s about … the principle.
Here in Honolulu we’re getting hosed for everything. There are somewhat lower gasoline prices closer to the center of town, perhaps reflecting transportation costs. But there is a definite ZIPcode effect as well.
Food stores are making big bank because we’ve no other choice. Safeway is the worst; Costco, the best.
Virtually all consumer goods here are shipped via Matson, easily adding ~30% overhead to costs. A nearly 5% excise (pyramid) tax gouges us even more.
Many here are frugal and hardworking. The weather, the ocean…it’s all great. But there is, as the saying here goes, “the price of paradise” to be paid. It’s hefty.
Cheers!
I feel for ya … then I remember you live in Hawaii !!! 😜 … at least you don’t have to heat or cool your home
I spend a lot of time at my daughters place in Dana Point CA (to hang with the grandsons) … and shop her local Ralph’s. It’s quite a nice area … but the Ralph’s prices are 25-35% lower than my N.CA Safeway … across the board … and meat prices are wayyyyy less expensive. We are being FLEECED here in NCA
Residents of Honolulu and other West facing (Sunny) parts of all the Hawaiian islands run their A/C pretty much year round. East facing areas, where I have a home, are exposed to the Trade Winds and don’t really need A/C, but many people still have it.
Should be opposite..lower income shoppers use SNAP and WIC.
1.99 a pound? White privilege
They tell us not to believe our lying eyes…
Wall Street pretending to be caught off guard to screw mom and pop investors.
I will echo your sentiment about 4th quarter 2021. In the fall of that year, I felt the economy start to chug a bit, slow down abruptly. This has been going on much longer than economists want to admit. This recession is going to be deep.
the blurb about 54% of annual sales tirggered a memory….of an article somewhere, that the Holiday Sales, Christmas, is also where such stores, make most of their annual projected sales…almost as if they ‘survive’ because of Christmas….
Way back, I surmised the impending recession…and companies all “hiring” but not really, just advertising that they are (a requirement of government grants for employing?–that here must be proof of attempts to hire?)…
…and thought, ok, lay offs are coming soon…and its really been a while where people are not spending in the discretionary realm…one example….
Precious puppy with blueberry sized bladder….I decided against my better judgement, to purchase a portable spot cleaner to take care of the accidents….the box the product came in, had a blurb on it, indicating a time frame for the product warranty…that ended in mid 2022…so I ask…how long has this product been hanging around…and not being purchased? Longer than they want to admit, for discretionary purposes…(not to mention my disappointment in said product’s ability to improve performance, as it has been around, from the same company, for 30+ years…one wouild think they would truly show an improved performance—it did not).
Which I interpreted to mean, the warranty has expired prior to my purchase….which implied to my sense of being cheap and suspicious…that this and probably many other products, have been sitting in warehouses…of which in my region of IL, they have been building like they are going out of style. Big business, is going to try and sell those products, no matter what….
It all comes down to the price of widgets and production…and raw materials…?
Try a mixture of warm water with the OxyClean (cheap) dishwashing liquid from Dollar Tree and cheap vinegar (kills the odor by changing pH value. Add normal cheap sparkling water to ‘lift’ the stain if you to the puppy spot quickly enough, or a little hydrogen peroxide (if and only iff underlying fabric is white) The sparkling water will not bother a color.
I had the same problem with a new puppy and an old cat.
I found a product called SCOE 10X.
it works fantastically!!
It evens kills odor from skunk.
Kids ‘N Pets works really well on stains and odors.
What happened to all the non-perishable products sitting in ships off CALI’S coast? Are we buying them now, at highly inflated priced?
I think I might have mentioned this before.
My son drives tractor-trailers for UPS.
He’s what they call a cover driver.
He doesn’t have a fixed route.
He fills in for the fixed routes when the assigned driver is off.
Up until March of this year, he was averaging 60 hours per week.
In April, he started seeing his work drop dramatically to around 12 hours per week.
He said they’ve been cutting routes, which has resulted in senior drivers bumping junior drivers off jobs.
His supervisors told him that the company has lost a lot of business, due to the economy, and they didn’t expect it to change in the foreseeable future.
My daughter is a route driver for UPS in South Carolina. Earlier this year they did what they called a “lay-off”. What they did was pull her, and several others, out of the truck and moved them to the truck loading operation. That lasted about a month then she got back to driving routes. I keep telling her, Save your money!!! Bad times coming!”
My son said that they did something similar.
They asked drivers to sign up for a voluntary two week unpaid “layoff.”
I’m guessing that they wanted them to volunteer so the company wouldn’t have to pay unemployment.
I told my son NOT to volunteer.
My son had previously worked inside one of their hubs and, according to his contract, is entitled to work inside if there is no work driving.
When he asked them to supplement his driving time with inside loading work, they stonewalled him.
The inside work would be at less than half his current hourly rate, but at least he would be making money and continuing to build seniority.
This drop in shipping volume reveals a lot about the state of our economy.
“This drop in shipping volume reveals a lot about the state of our economy.
Unfortunately…
Is it a drop in overall shipping volume or is Amazon delivering more of their sold products via their own vehicles and less via UPS/FedEx/USPS?
My cousin works full time in a UPS warehouse, and he told me they eliminated a shift.
Don’t forget the other side of the equation. A lot of the reason we are in this mess is because of this right here..
The other day, my buddy and I were driving down the road when we came upon a NYSDOT work crew engaged in tree trimming.
My buddy said, “This should be good. Count how many of those idiots they’ve got on this job.”
They had five trucks and twelve workers.
Eleven guys were standing around watching ONE guy in a cherry picker cutting a branch.
I’m guessing the guy in the cherry picker was probably low man in seniority.
Actually, the guy in the bucket was the only one who didn’t go to college and so he was the only one who KNEW how to use a chainsaw!
A few years ago I was the last one out of the church parking lot. My car wouldn’t start. I needed a jump start. Had the jumper cables, but needed another vehicle. Cell phone dead zone. What to do? I waited to see if there would be a baptism that afternoon. There was! Folks started showing up. I approached a group of men, 30s and dressed “professionally”. When I asked for a jump start, they all looked at me like I’d come from another planet. I saw a man, same age, but wearing jeans and flannel shirt, walking up. When I asked him for help, he said without hesitation, “Sure thing. Where are you parked?” Interesting study in profiling. Interesting commentary on who has basic skills. My daddy wouldn’t let me get a driver’s license without knowing how to jump start a car and change a tire.
I went to college and know how to use a chainsaw.
I have three of them.
Had four, but my father stole my 1970s era McCulloch 😖
That saw has cut more wood than I can remember and it still runs like a beast.
However, I was cutting and splitting firewood long before I ever graduated from college.
I have a 1970s Rockwell orbital sander, and I’ve had three experienced workmen offer me an amazing price for it! They all said it was the best ever made. All metal, no plastic.
What’s orange, has 4 wheels and sleeps two?
A county Road Commission Truck.
Same for WA DOT. And they leave the slow, flagger, etc signs even with no one working
Greedy gov’t always pays itself FIRST AND LAST.
You mean the parasite infestation? My company is lousy with parasites. Just in my one department, we have two team leads (who are technically not management), a supervisor, then a manager and a payroll manager. Then we move on up the chain to a regional director and VP and then the chiefs.
On top of that, we also have hangers-on who STAY out of work on FMLA (long-term illness) or whatever else. We have one employee who hasn’t shown up for about two months, but apparently that one will return someday. So we’re perpetually short-staffed and over-managed.
Oh, and don’t forget the safety and compliance people. We have at least a couple of those in my building alone, plus all the committee volunteers who do the inspections but who really just use that time to ass around and dodge work.
Parasites, man. All parasites. (pardon my ranting)
Absolutely true. I work for a large retailer and the amount of stupidity, wastefulness, arrogance and zero common sense in the 6 figure sector is breathtaking.
We also have to fire Dave due to our new diversity and equity polices as well.
Looks exactly like the ElPaso county COLO 2C tax renewal crew “working” on our street!
Democrats love the Economy, they just hate the companies, the jobs and the people who create and work in it.
This is all by design. The dRATS will say see, the free market doesnt work, we, Big Gov need more control over it. We are the market, we created that.
Credit Scores, cashless society, rationing of housing, food, work, healthcare in 3, 2, 1. You have been a bad person, stay in your home for a week, no viddles for you until you obey us.
I choose to “obey” God: No mark of the beast to buy and sell, for me.
The media and esp the business channels do their utmost to hide information about the ongoing rampant inflation.
According to them, happy days are here again, the stock market is ready to take off, jobs are abundant, and it all could not be better.
They are in the business of lying to cover for the Biden administration ineptness and all the signs that point to recession.
Steady job layoffs. Inflation weve not seen for decades. Consumer and unsustainable national debt. Many people having to take second jobs. Living paycheck to paycheck. There is more
They are out of touch with Main Street and most American households.
I believe we are heading for deep economic trouble. We will see.
Most of our problems stem from a steady diet of mainstream propaganda. Junk in = junk out.
People can’t think for themselves anymore. They have been deceived (if not completely deranged) by Lucifer’s minions.
I chatted with my friends in the Industrial Supply business yesterday. They basically keep a line of industrial fasteners supplied to manufacturers and some retail outlets. Been at it for 30+ years. They described a slowdown like they have never seen. People are not making stuff, repairing stuff, producing stuff. It is not happening. Somewhere a Big Bubble is going to burst. They are based in Northern Illinois and ship worldwide, about 75-80% USA.
I have been seeing this in the west as well.
Talking to long term business owner friends, they are going to get the hell out before they lose everything.
Lots of good jobs and LOCAL businesses going away forever.
Replaced with “dollar” type stores with more cheap foreign crap and no ties to the community.
Me, during the CCP plague, I refused to trade with mask commies. I learned I was buying far, far more than I ever needed.
I learned these stores need me more than I need them.
They created their own demise.
Not my circus, not my monkeys.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/philadelphia-feds-factory-gauge-shows-ninth-straight-month-of-declining-activity-in-may-3cab63f3?mod=economy-politics
Industrial output down big.
We are seeing a sharp downturn ourselves in the commercial construction materials supply sector as well.
Additionally, there does not appear to be as many downstream projects entering the ‘pipeline’ to bid as before.
Market is already starting to contract. Many or us close the ‘beat of the street,’ particularly us older ones expect a late 2008 scenario later in the year. Credit market tightening concerns has everyone on pins and needles because all of us know, if there is no money to loan, nothing gets built or remodeled!
That $100 item I bought in 2020 now costs $117.20 in 2023, according to the BLS inflation calculator. Thats a 17.2% increase and it keeps getting higher.
The mountebanks in DC tell you inflation is coming down. It is not. It is only climbing at a slower rate as price increases pile on price increases.
All the focus is on money supply, when the true culprit is the damage done to the supply chain, the production of goods and service , the lack of employees to get the job done. The money flood only helped the struggling peons to buy the things they wanted or needed. It did nothing to restock the nation’s store shelved.
And, for retirees on a fixed income, those prices are NEVER going to come down. Do less with less is the Biden motto.
“…the true culprit is the damage done to the supply chain, the production of goods and service …”
This is exactly what Sundance warned us about, and to be prepared! Thank you Sundance!
While he finds new bribes to organize. He’s lived his whole life on bribes.
Says target sales for the more “high end goods “ is down, because they all get stolen before bought.
I understand the basic concept of the thieves, these corporations are getting rich off government assistance and we all want some. People are very predictable.
Go through any area populated primarily with blacks, there are no nice stores and prices are extremely high. Profile?
https://nypost.com/2023/04/24/san-francisco-target-puts-entire-inventory-on-lockdown-amid-shoplifting-crisis
Whole Foods Market and Nordstrom have closed, or will soon be closing, their main stores in downtown San Francisco due primarily to shoplifting.
It doesn’t make sense to put in a new kitchen when you can’t afford groceries.
The best cliff notes explanation so far!
Spot on.
Wow!
`
Some observe that the following seems to affect the declining US and western alliance but not the ascending BRICS+:
Manufacturing hollowed out. Meritocracy being destroyed by woke Marxism, a process that actually started over 50 years ago but recently acquired even greater strangling power under a new fascist acronym “DEI”. Intentional energy strangulation driving inflation and further contracting the economy, added to DEI with another new acronym wielded by fascist power: “ESG”.
How will the US rebuild a REAL substantive economic strength, when the skills and talent are disappearing under the crush of this Marxism? Down the fiat debt drain we go.
Even the M.I.C. is being degraded:
https://www.danielgreenfield.org/2023/05/next-chairman-of-joint-chiefs-wants.html
Retail sales are a bellwether. But most are too busy and self-absorbed to pay attention, a condition reinforced by censorship and propaganda*. They don’t even pay attention to the “Made in China” labels on all that stuff in those retail stores, and what that signifies – they just love buying stuff. Mammon-idolatry. See Matthew 6:24.
Some see all this as a huge problem.
Others see it as dovetailing with their goals, such as the 100 Year Plan of the CCP – merely coincidence? Or something more organized and ominous?
(* The plandemic and shots are similar in the US – VAERS is a bellwether, censorship and propaganda reinforce the ignorant illusions of the masses.)
Also keep in mind that many brick and mortar retailers have pulled out of blue run cities and the charges to income taken will be material. This won’t diminish the impact of same store sales, but it will only make reporting positive outlooks on their quarterly investor phone calls more difficult from the usual bullshit that is spewed.
We’ve been in a recession since the first quarter of 2022. The media and gov’t have done everything they can to not show it. Sometimes outright ignoring it.
The non-bank commercial real estate lenders are sharply increasing marketing activities. Claiming rates are down a bit, and good availability of funds.
This can be a sign of low sales, and taking advantage of the banking situation, but showing decreased rates has me watching for other signs that the Fed is already increasing liquidity. Some of this will be insurance money looking outside the stock market, some will be investors looking for yield.
Bottom line, I wouldn’t be short right now medium or long term.
Curious on the report per region?
Will confirm if blue states are worse off economically than red…key barometer…
The drop in home sales is also a contributing factor. Moving into a “New to you” home almost always means some fixing up and new furnishings.
“US Existing Home Sales is at a current level of 4.44M, down from 4.55M last month and down from 5.69M one year ago. This is a change of -2.42% from last month and -21.97% from one year ago.”
https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_existing_home_sales#:~:text=US%20Existing%20Home%20Sales%20is,21.97%25%20from%20one%20year%20ago.
Home sales (units sold) in January 2023 were below pandemic levels of January 2020
The lockdown(s) didn’t start until March/April 2020.
You are correct, I read the 3 year chart wrong. I should have said June 2020.
Home Depot and Target are the supply houses for day laborer businesses (lawn maintenance, general home repairs and remodeling) and new construction. These are underground as well as aboveground business which thrive on the disposable income of people in the area. This is not just a poor economic metric — it is an indication that the pretending may be over as we head into a depression. It will be pretty much official when Amazon drops the other shoe.
Wall Street is always caught “Off Guard”.
Much like the FBI.
For an educated bunch, they sure are stupid.
If they are so good at making money, why do they need your money? Shouldn’t they have plenty of their own?
Home Depot stores where I live have began to put higher value merchandise behind locked cabinets. There is really no reason to do that in Idaho at this point but I am sure the decision was made at the corporate level.
Well, I can’t answer for anyone else, but I stopped using Home Depot when they started promoting Gay Pride Days with Floats. Target lost me when they decided to allow men in the women’s rest rooms. As far as I’m concerned, they BOTH can go bankrupt.
We have a Target right near us, but I stopped frequenting them so long ago for tone deaf inventory issues that I can’t remember where the irritation ended and the actual boycotting began.
Both Home Depot and Target also pander to the LGBTQ gender benders. Maybe they are reaping what they’ve sown.
“Organized” is code word for “jogger”, “teen” or “scholar”
I’m not sure it is. I think it’s actual organizations, like maybe the Russian mob. Target stores in the Philadelphia area avoid the worst neighborhoods and tend to be in places where the local police will pay more attention to theft.
Totally the case in my own company. Everyone was crowing about the topline growth, but I knew that unit sales was pretty stagnant. Now sales are down 15-20% YoY and everybody is scratching their heads. Our price inflation has been in the 20-30% range. I wish they were as smart as they think they are.
I went to Home Depot in central AZ the other day where shoplifting is not a huge problem, and there were lots of workers everywhere. What a shock! usually they are hard to find! But there were almost no shoppers anywhere. Same thing at Walmart down the street. Same thing at Harbor Freight around the corner where the only cars in the parking lot besides mine were the employees’ cars. Lots of employees hanging around these stores but no shoppers.
The prolonged pandemic shutdown
had perhaps lasting ripple affects of consumers seeking
products and services without traveling to shop inside physical stores.
Online shopping / mailing may have increased…
and / or people learned to do without some products or services.
There are also more office space vacancies or under utilized space due to an increase of work from home ( telework) policies
( which are less productive and or have communication breakdowns rippling through).
(pending… spaces to be filled by illegal immigrants – sans rent payments? )
Imho
Love thy neighbors…
“You will eat ze bugs!” — Klaus Schwab
Retail sales are not the only ones hit. Skilled laborers are in short supply, too.
Hubby has had a slow leak in his radiator. There’s only one (1) Dodge dealership, service department in our area. He called last week several times and they never called him back. He called this week and finally went over there and “talked” to them. His appointment is for June 1st!
I told him they probably couldn’t get workers. He reminded me there’s an excellent school up the road that teaches vehicle repair and welding. They could use them as interns, add to the students job time and the business will be rewarded by the State. Apparently, the manager is unaware of what’s in his/her (probably a hybrid), neighborhood.
So… Do all of the employees get to fill a few bags full of goods and walk out the door each night after pulling a 10 hour shift without paying for them?
Yeah, a lot of merchandise goes out the back door too.
Sunance did provide a report last week that showed the overall cost of raw materials has fallen 19%, yet the cost to produce the raw materials as remained at 21%, this is the government driving these cost through the climate change agenda.
Take away statement from Target CFO: “I’m guessing………”. Just about sums up the whole administrative approach of the Biden economic team and their supporters (like Target).
Do unit sales take into account the product shrinkage (sheets per roll, ounces per container, etc.) that has been occurring just like it did in the stagflation of the 1970s?
With toilet paper, I’ve noticed not only sheets/roll, but the width of the rolls has become smaller.
Check out Verizon and what they are doing.
The new plans are supposed to start tomorrow.
Instead of having Disney and other channels/stuff automatically added…
They will be offered at additional 10.00 per month and no longer automatically included. 👏
Before the end of the month I will be going there to renegotiate my bill.
I do realize it is a ploy to get people in the store…..the last couple of months when I went to pay my bill at their kiosk about 7 employees standing around and no shoppers. The other day I noticed only 3 employees.
Wonder how this new offer is going to affect Disney and the others……if I can drop Disney – and save money—double win!
I will know more when I go to change plans.
Correction…. I believe that the new plans start today.
I cut the cord a long time ago. Nothing worth paying for on TV. If i cant stream it for free dont need it.
Verizon is my phone provider.
The government forced businesses to close and people to lose their jobs. Now that theyre allowed to reopen, its called “creating jobs”.
I said it here a few times. We have been in recession once Biden was installed.
Inflation hiding recession, I like that!
People are trying to find alternatives to the big box, ‘walk away’ shopping. Leave the big boy’s behind that got preferential treatment during the covid scam. There is so much manufactured product in this country, you can go to a thrift store and find new unused or barely used product. There is so much ‘STUFF’ people are buying containers full of ‘Stuff’ and selling it at discount. Look at craiglist and other local thrift sales.
China shipped so much cheap junk to the U.S., they cut their own throat.
https://www.departmentstoreliquidations.com/
Another brilliant analysis from Sundance.
All the idiots outside the Treehouse can keep pretending. I wanted to help by building on the impact of looking only at PRICES instead of UNITS… (reference Sundance less on the price vs units of widgets)
Our company manufactures & sells pounds (UNITS) of food.Consumers buy the food products using dollars (PRICES)These prices are increasing almost every time consumers go to the store (inflation) because the company needs to pay for all the inputs cost inflation (labor, ingredients, packaging, energy, transportation…)
Our Revenue (prices multiplied by units) has been increasing around 3% almost every year for past 30 years.
Last year, we were up 6% – everyone got a big bonus and was happy. What 90% of the leadership doesn’t understand….
Our factories are making about 5% less pounds (UNITS)Therefore, less time is needed to make these pounds.Which translates to several bad things, the worst being less hours for factory workers…
So this doomsday cycle is already underway across all companies (some are in much worse shape than others)…
workers have less hours = lower paycheckless money to spend + higher prices in the stores = less units purchasedrepeat step 1 until unemployed
Walmart sales are out. They also are in the crapper, despite what Cramer says.
Target and Walmart (and their waterboys in the media) are still putting semi positive spins on things. When will these companies admit some hard truths (i.e. they’re not selling anything but food, and only much higher prices have caused increased revenue). And when will the financial media stop being their cheerleaders and do some actual analysis?
As I have observed history repeating itself, the bean counters will soon come out of the closet an state that the recession actually started at the end of 2021. It wasn’t so bad, and the markets will start trending up. Most likely around the time of the next election so they can boost the bidenette cabal for another four years.
Most won’t remember the financial pain they suffered over the four prior years.
I think it’s the late spring here in the northeast. It’s a great time to buy stock!
TARGET GOING MORE WOKE THAN IT ALREADY WAS….hope they go bankrupt….sorry for workers but these owners etc deserve it