Clothing Sales Ramp Up

Dressing up might be one of those unexpected new year’s resolutions.

We have seen all sorts of interesting and even weird dynamics in the COVID world – among them that ‘business attire’ has taken a distinctive shift to the informal side. It has even spawned jokes about doing video meetings in pajamas and so on. Interestingly, some of the data on retail spending suggest there may be something to this trend as expenditures at clothing and jewellery stores was down through much of last year.

But we now have some early indications of a change in direction.  The banks have provided some useful insights into how consumer spending patterns are changing by examining activity in their client accounts and on credit cards. And two have come out in recent days saying that consumer or retail spending was noticeably stronger in the second half of last month. And this was especially true when looking at expenditures on clothing – they rebounded quite strongly so far this year and it was even more visible in February.

And Saskatchewan was one of a few provinces where it particularly evident.