The Return of Retail: Holiday Spending 2009

I don’t know if it really matters how bad the economy gets. People are compelled to spend money, and double so during the holidays. If they don’t have money they just use a credit card. It’s part of human nature and part of being an American living in a consumer society.

Love the graphic! And love Mint!

Can you guys starting including Amazon as a retailer in these graphs too? They are definitely bigger than NewEgg when it comes to shopping online …

Thanks

If anyone will care to remember, in the early fall of 2008 we were all clutching our nadsacks as the government raped us from one end and wallstreet from another. No one was filled with holiday cheer that year, because instead of repenting and keeping Christmas, Old Mr. Scrooge took a fat, hot dump in the stocking of the Tiny Tim’s of the world.

Flash forward to a year later when everyone is fooled by an illusionary upswing in the stock market (due to continued derivative trading and no regulation increases on fractional reserves or leverage thresholds for the banks playing with our money at 0% interest), and it is a no-brainer why people are dumping cash like its going out of style.

Mark my words, fellow Minters. Winter is coming. It will be long. It will be harsh. And there will be many who don’t make it through. Keep your wits about you, and don’t buy into the trends, and you’ll be just fine. That, or learn to hunt and relocate to the Northern Territories or Alaska.