The Hole Retail Story

May 18, 2016
Yahoo Finance: The whole retail story in 2 earnings announcements

The divergent quarterly results of Lowe’s (LOW) and Target (TGT) on Wednesday confirm a trend in consumer spending: Americans are spending less on apparel while spending lots in home-related categories.

Are people still shopping at grocery stores? Buying cars? Filling their prescriptions? Eating at restaurants? Buying gasoline? Furniture? Electronics? Sporting goods? Shopping online? How's Eddie Lampert at Sears holding up? Are there any Memorial Day sales this year? Are we going to have a great Christmas? How about next year? Have robots replaced all the retail employees yet? Is Walmart still hiring older workers to greet shoppers and make sure nobody is leaving the stores without paying? How about the bathroom situation? Have we finally figured out who can use which ones? Has Cramer chimed in yet? Is Ackman still shorting Herbalife? When can I expect sales taxes to go up again? Why don't they ever seem to fall? Are Canadians still coming down to buy stuff or is our dollar too strong? Would now be a good time to buy stuff in Canada? How about Apple? The gaming industry? People still downloading apps? Any good ones I don't know about?

Oops. That's one helluva paragraph. Sorry about that. Unfortunately, I have many more questions to ask. I don't know. Seems like I'm missing part of the whole retail story, but maybe that's just me.

So help me, if I get to the last page of this whole book and find out the butler did it, this story's gonna suck.

Dammit. That was supposed to be the end of my post but... Are people still buying physical books? Or are they all electronic now? What's the current Emergency Room Bill to College Textbook price ratio? Why do those two seem so linked? Coincidence? How can textbooks be so expensive when most books with text are so cheap? Where has Borders gone? Is Barnes & Noble next? What will replace them? Will our strip malls shrink? How about nail salons? Can there ever be too many?

Gasping for breath! I need to know!! Are...

To Be Continued