What's Up, Retail Industry?

Here's how I'd like to receive news about the retail industry from this point on. "Everything is down until you hear from us otherwise."

Enough said. Let's talk about what's "up" in the retail world.

Retail car sales were up 21.2% in Newfoundland in October. It could have something to do with the fact that the Canadian province is the same size as the state of California, but has 30% less population than the city of San Francisco. That's a lot of land to cover in between people. It would be lonely without a car.

Auto sales were also up in Singapore, along with the retail sales of furniture, computers, medical goods, and toiletries, for an overall 8.4% increase. Since Singapore is both a city and a country, we should probably divide all percentages by two, to be fair.

U.S. sentiment is up. The Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers index revealed a .3 change to the positive, compared to October's figures. That could be equal to about 23 people who are feeling more optimistic, but we'll take it as a good sign.

The retail sale of guns is up. (No official figures have been released from the street trafficking industry.) Let's hope that not too many more economic factors go down, otherwise we might be reading about some unsavory firearms-related things going up in the next few months.

Some grocery store are seeing their revenues go up due in part to the strong increase in Spam sales. The Hormel plant in Austin, Minnesota is running two shifts, seven days a week, to keep up with the demand. When the economy gets tough, the tough eat processed pork parts in a can.

Apparently the tough also eat McDonald's, because their global sales were also up 8.2%. Makers of cholesterol medication and insulin are preparing for what is going up next.

There's no big moral to this retail story. Sometimes it's just nice to look "up" and get a different perspective.