Remember all those breathless Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) predictions by the media about how great Christmas sales were going to be because the economy is just-oh-so-peachy and damn those America-hating Democrats for hoping for a depression and criticizing our fearless leader and Bush is so great and now he's so a lock to be elected in 2004?
Ooops. Someone forgot to remind American shoppers:
Wal-Mart dampened hopes for strong holiday sales as it announced expectations that US December same-store sales growth would be at the low end of a 3-5 per cent growth forecast.
In a weekly sales summary, the world's largest retailer said more consumers were delaying holiday shopping and buying gift cards, which are not recorded as revenue when purchased.
Richard Hastings, analyst at Bernard Sands, said: "Wal-Mart shoppers are a huge aggregation of American society. The sales reflect that there are a lot of households insufficiently funded for the future," said Mr Hastings. "If you're an observer, you need to be very worried about this."