This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg Quick Takes. Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. All right, on the Bloomberg terminal, we talked about this story Jared Dillion, Bloomberg Opinion Columns. He writes that Americans are talking themselves into a recession. We're already seeing that in the housing market. Tim u s home sale cancelations jumping in June, roughly sixty deals falling through. That's about fift of homes that
entered into a contract according to Redfin. We're wondering what the consumers up to. Yeah, what is the consumer up to, especially ahead of Prime Day and what's actually going on, you know with marketplace sellers when it comes to prime day. For that, we turned to Tom McGee, the president and CEO of I C s C. Tom joins us on the phone from Los Angeles. Tom good to have you
with us. He should note that I C s C promotes as you meant as you write on the website and elevates the marketplaces and spaces where people shop, dine, work and play. So think brick and mortar. Here. Give us an idea, Tom, of of what you're thinking and what you're seeing right now as we look across the economic landscape and try to get an understanding for the shifting way that people are spending money. Well, good afternoon, Thanks for having me on High, Tim High Carroll. Uh,
it's good to be with you again. Look, I think the consumer has been exceptionally resilient UM over the course of obviously the last couple of months, where a placent concerns have been you know, significant and heightened. You know, I do think that will continue to see strong retail sales over the next you know, a few months. You still have a high level of personal savings and the
job market is strong UM. But you know, I think if inflation continues to be UM, you know, front and center, and continues to be at the levels that it is today, of course, at some point it's going to have a negative impact upon consumer spending. Right now, you know, you still have those strong underlying um, you know, considerations of personal savings and jobs and that's going to drive you know, continue drive to spend, and you know that bolts in retail,
but also in experiences. I mean, it is the summertime and we've all you know, experienced and witness what's happening, you know, with the traffic at the airports, that on planes, etcetera. So there's a lot of folks spending money on experiential type of things, whether there's travel or going out to doing the things that they like to do in the summer and to many extent haven't been able to do
for the last couple of years. Well, do you feel like, toime your members are feeling a little like they're a little cautious looking at the second half of the year and maybe into because I agree him and I've spent more time in the airport than we have in the last couple of years in a big way, they can convert some of the space, you know, empty retail space around to bigger airports. Because we are a seriously person
that seem yeah, exactly. And so I just I wonder what your members are saying that people would rather travel right now than maybe go buy some more clothes or stuff for the home. Well, I think generally speaking, you know when people you know, in a in a in a normal environment, you know, pre HOVID, pre inflation concerns, etcetera, that you know, when you have a high level of travel and experiential type of spend that generally was good
for retail. I mean, when people are out and they're spending and their vacationing, they're going to buy a lot of stuff and that's generally good for retailing. And of course a lot of retail centers are you know, places where people go, um, you know, it's been those experience with dollars. So I think generally speaking, you know, that type of spend is not negative for for retail. I mean, obviously there's ebbs and flows as a relates to the
time of the year and so forth. I think the level of concern, you know, I think as it relates to the industry and the broader consumer is just you know, the thing that we all have um a level of concern around, which is inflation. And you know, if this continues at the current rate, that is you know, history is going to be our guide and that's always been a negative over the long run for consumer spending and
obviously for the economy. If we're able to get inflation under the control under control and the ands able to advigat a soft landing, that will you know, I think right now that consumer continues to be resilient and strong. Hey, tom one day. I want to ask you because there's a fair amount of stores just around Bloomberg headquarters in New York City that are still vacant. There used to be more. I was going to say, yeah, but the Republic, the containers, there's a lot of them that are gone.
Talked to us about delinquency rates um that play into the retail sector CNBS loans. I'm thinking specifically, are we seeing any kind of fall up? You know, actually that's improved dramatically and you're really at very um you know, strong levels today. The level of delinquency has dropped it in the in the CMBs loan market, I think it's
under seven percent today. In June number was approaching, so that that market has strength and considerably and quite frankly right, collections as an industry or are in the low nine percent I think nine eighty last number size and a few days ago, So I don't. I don't. Generally speaking, the inter streets are very strong footing because consumers are spending and they're they're going out to shop at stores and they're going out to shop online. I mean, consumer
spending is strong. Now, you mentioned New York and obviously New York is a particularly you know, it's a unique market, and it is you know, it's significantly impacted by what's happening in the broader um you know, work environment and quite frankly the stresses that are people coming back into the coming back into the office. So it's that's particularly midtown that's a big driver of retail spence. So New York is unique relative to the rest of the country.
A Tom thirty seconds Left weigh in on the power of Amazon Prime Day away from Amazon and how it has turned into a shopping day outside of Amazon to for for your your clients, your members, just really quickly. Yeah, yes, it's become an iconic shopping day. And so you you know, Target deal days and and a whole host of other retailers are having similar type of events, and so it's become, you know, in other iconic shopping day, just like Black Friday in other days in other parts of the year.
It's more than one day, right, it's a couple of days or something. It's now an event. Carol, I have been I have been bombarded by offers. What are you going to buy? Things? I must have? What must have you have? What must you have? Look away, look Away, that's what I'm doing. I got enough stuff in my life right now. Tommygee, always a pleasure, President and CEO of I C s C, on the phone from l A