Slow Death Of Department Stores As Non-Store Retailers Including Amazon Flourish

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Nonstore retailers are holding pandemic gains as department stores slowly sink into oblivion…

Mish calculation from advance retail sales reports.

Non-store retailers include kiosks, vending machines, direct selling, telemarketing, direct marketing and e-tailing. Amazon is the largest non-store retailer.

I calculate the percentage excluding items that cannot or normally do not happen except in person. That list includes gas stations, food services, grocery stores, and motor vehicles.

Nonstore Retail Sales as Percent of Advance Retail Sales Detail

34 percent of sales excluding those items are now made online. Amazon is the biggest beneficiary and department stores are the biggest loser.

Advance Retail Sales Major Categories

Department stores are dying a slow death. There really is no point to them.

Big Surge in Retail Sales Will Put More Fed Rate Hikes on the Table

On October 17 I noted Big Surge in Retail Sales Will Put More Fed Rate Hikes on the Table

Retail sales unexpectedly rose 0.7% in September vs. 0.3% expected. The Commerce Department revised August from 0.6% to 0.8%.

See the above link for more details.

Trucking Recession Deepens: Convoy Suspends Operations and Cancels All Shipments

In a related post, note the Trucking Recession Deepens: Convoy Suspends Operations and Cancels All Shipments

There’s some sad news today in the trucking business today that unfortunately has some people cheering.

Why the Cheers?

“Early investments came from vehicles backed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.”

Lots of people hate Bill Gates and Al Gore. Bezos is mot particularly well liked either.

But it’s not like Bill Gates, Al Gore, or Jeff Bezos is going to be hurt by this. It will hardly matter to them at all.

Meanwhile, housing is in the gutter, auto companies are on strike, inflation is soaring, mortgage rates are 8.0 percent, and there is excess capacity in the shipping business.