March Continues Its Sluggish Trend
While negative sales figures are never good news, at least independent grocers did less poorly in the third week of March than the first two. Retailers reported that same store sales were down 1.25 percent and customer counts worked their way to the positive side, increasing 0.65 percent.
Current economic indicators show that there could be an opportunity for increased consumer spending as the spring continues. Consumer confidence, although cooling off slightly in March, remains highly elevated. The unemployment rate is very low at 4.1 percent. The number of people filing for first time jobless benefits fell to a 45 year low today. However consumer spending is not trending upward in the same way.
There could be a change on the horizon. The new tax law passed late in 2017 was designed to reduce the tax liabilities for nearly all taxpayers, which could result in larger refunds after tax filings. We’ll see whether the average consumer decides to spend that extra money, or save.