Retail sales soar!

Finally, retail sales are showing signs of life for the economy. Excluding automobiles, retail sales totaled $584 billion dollars from November 5th-December 24th. This is a 5.5% increase from last year. Business has finally been good for beaten-down retailers however they are hoping that continued sales promotions will continue decent sales.

So what have we learned this year? The American consumer is willing to spend a little more money but mainly shops at stores that offer the deepest discounts. This doesn’t mean that thousands of jobs will immediate come back but it’s definitely a strong sign of improvement.