We are now getting our first reading on how consumers performed during the Christmas season a couple months ago.
StatsCan has just compiled their estimate of retail or consumer spending for December which is critical for those in the retail segment of the economy. And it was — so-so.
Gross revenue is the primary measure of how consumers behaved and it is also a barometer of consumer confidence. In Saskatchewan, we closed out the year with virtually no change.
At just over $2 billion sales for the month were 0.2 per cent lower than November and six per cent ahead of the same time a year earlier.
Measuring this one can be tricky these days too as inflation is skewing spending, pushing the numbers upward because prices are higher but it turns out we did actually buy more volume so sales were broadly rising.
And all of the change just might be online activity. It turns out that one declined in December as people appeared to be more interested in shopping at a store with a door rather than buying with a mouse and screen.
