After you sift through Reuters five paragraphs yesterday reporting how the US Commerce Department’s latest figures proves how awful retail sales were off in July (mainly due to autos,) you find that sales at department stores and other general merchandise stores rose 0.3%. Sales at furniture stores, hurt by the slump in housing, rose 1% in July.
The news isn’t all bad; you just have to look for the silver lining. Stay focused and brace yourselves for the pundits to predict a horrible back-to-school and holiday. If there is something to fear – they’ll find a way to attach it to retail.
Hopefully, the sales numbers will continue to prove them wrong, even if the encouraging news is buried several paragraphs down the page.
