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- Our Drunken Sailors Splurged at Stores & Auto Dealers Amid Lower Prices of Durable Goods, Partied at Eating & Drinking Places, and Paid an Arm and a Leg at Gas Stations
Our Drunken Sailors Splurged at Stores & Auto Dealers Amid Lower Prices of Durable Goods, Partied at Eating & Drinking Places, and Paid an Arm and a Leg at Gas Stations
by Wolf Richter Wolf Street
They spent a record amount more at bars & restaurants than at food & beverage stores, which tells us something about our drunken sailors.
We’ve long expected that consumers would shift their spending from goods that retailers sell, after the drunken binge during the pandemic, to services that retailers don’t sell, and they did.
But our drunken sailors just cannot give up on shopping, and retail sales have continued to surge despite the shift to services, and retail sales surged again in August, including at auto dealers, at restaurants, at food and beverage stores, at clothing stores (+0.9%, annualized +11%, oh dearie), and at general merchandise stores, despite a drop in prices of many goods that these retailers sell, including new and used vehicles, the largest category.