American retailers suffered a setback in April as unseasonable temperatures, an early Easter holiday, and rising gasoline prices took a big bite out of monthly sales. Wal-Mart warned it may not meet quarterly forecasts as a result, blaming higher gasoline prices, but some New York City shoppers said their spending habits had not changed.
When questioned regarding higher gasoline prices and spending habits, Ms. Wade claims verbally that gasoline prices do not have any impact on her spending, yet, her body language tells the truth with head nods in the positive. Watch the short video and read her body language yourself.
Featured Speakers: Mark Vitner, senior economist, Wachovia Jeannine Wade, consumer, New York City Scott Albert, consumer, New York City.
Conway G. Gittens reports from New York.
I have to say, that this is a woman who really doesn't know how much she's spending.
ReplyDeleteWhen I see my gasoline bill rise to $45/ week, you know that I'm thinking about ways in which to save money.
I guess the bottom line is that it's forced me to look at how I live and I have reached the conclusion that much of what I really need can be found within a ten-mile radius. It's made me more local, but I don't think that's a bad thing. Also, I don't need to drive all over the place looking for stuff and I seem to need less.
If we would only learn from our mistakes, we would not be in this mess. I guess the 70's oil crisis, did nothing more than create hate for the Middle East. We need to look at ourselves, and see what kind of cars we drive. This whole war would not have occurred had we moved away from Big Oil and utilized the momentum we had as a nation to rid ourselves of gas guzzling cars. Now, we must pay the price, and if you drive an SUV or a P/U you have NO RIGHT to complain. I drive a 4-cylinder sedan with 4 doors it gets 27 MPG city. I can afford to pay $6.00 per gallon as I only live 15 miles away. I don’t know about the rest of you, but the first time gas hit $1.50, I learned my lesson and sold my Chevy Silverado 1500 and quickly learned to love small cars, this was way back then, I only laugh at this point cause if you haven’t been able to see a trend over the last 30 years, then you deserve to go broke with your fancy SUV getting 15 MPG, driving 80 miles to work one way.
ReplyDelete