Over the last month, we have noticed that sales are down in our electronics business. Basically people are not buying things that they don’t need. Lets admit it, you don’t “need” a wireless router in your home. You can keep swithing the ethernet cable back and forth between the computers in your home. Sure, you can’t wonder around the house, but do you really “need” to? The answer seems to be “NO” for more and more people.
They also don’t “need” to replace that older computer. They may sit waiting a little longer, but parting with the $500 for a slightly better model is not a necessity. A laptop would be a nice replacement for the aging desktop system, but the laptop cost money. Money you are spending on something else, like bills!
This is actually the first month that we have seen declines in sales. I don’t think that it will be the last though. One thing that may help is that Christmas is coming. People tend to lose their minds at Christmas. Society puts so much pressure on gift giving, that people spend money they don’t have. Not everyone does this, but enough of them do that it ends up in the retailers favor.
One area of the store has been better than the last few month, video rentals. We have been renting movies like crazy. I think that people are renting movies instead of doing other more expensive activities. Also the movie selection has been a little better than the last few months. There is also the weather to thank. So some reason the weather on the weekends has not been all that great for the last couple of months. When this happens, we get a flood of people looking for movies to rent.
