Welcome the that time of the year again, the time where companies pour all of their hopes into the fact you may just mortgage the whole year next year so you can have a fun and happy Christmas but those same companies may have already come to the fact that many Americans have not only mortgaged next year but many after already. The normal middle class American is tapped out and most likely losing his house either now or over the next couple of years.
Companies spend millions in the hope that we will line up on their sidewalks at odd hours of the morning in the hopes of getting one of those elusive deals. They even try to make it out to be a sport in the hopes more will try and this year the worst of all, just plain opening on Thanksgiving. Corporate greed at it’s finest; they show again that employees are not even part of the thought process when they decided that they should just be open of Thanksgiving. My favorite is when they explain that without sales and profits they would have to lose staff. So work you job on your holiday away from your family or you might lose your job, what a nice holiday message. CO of Best Buy Co. Brad Andersen took a pay cut in 2010 and only brought home $1.2 million for his efforts and CEO of Sears W. Bruce Johnson jumped to $5.3 million which is 3 times what he made the previous year. Which obviously make sense because the Sears stock in May of 2010 was at $123.90 and finished trading today at just under $60, under half of its past value. You can find many more examples but all it does is upset people.
It is understandable why retails are scared. Banks are not lending to the over expended public and are struggling on their own to survive, The middle class can no longer hope for a strong tax refund due to our governments poor management of finances and may have to raise taxes to help its swelling of spending. Plus this will be the first year that the market is very much down, retail has a foe in Occupy Wall Street and that normal people just plain don’t have any more money. The cost of goods, groceries, fuel, electricity and entertainment are all rising. Even markets unaffected but the inflation rise while everything else is because they can (now’s their chance). You can see the fear in the markets due to the consistent falling and the massive amount of commercials out there.
Small businesses that simply cannot compete with the buying power of a Wal-Mart or a Best Buy are left in the cold this holiday season. With the foreseen drop in consumer spending may small companies maybe operating in their last season. But we are seeing all of the tactics this year. The news is doing their part by ignoring news with great deals on TV’s and reporting how many tents are lined up around the mall, even if there really isn’t any. Everything around the consumer is either “everything’s fine, go shopping” or “if people don’t shop we will be forced to cut jobs”. Well with millions of Americans losing their jobs and homes daily, the commercials and news twist may not be enough. It doesn’t matter how great of a deal that TV is if we have no money to buy it.