Uh, this is taking stock with Pim's Box and Kathleen Hayes on Bloomberg Radio. Retail sales, the consumer, what's driving uh the economy forward or not? As the case, maybe it looks like in August, maybe the consumer took the foot off the gas, maybe even put the brakes on a bit. We're gonna find out what it means for various kinds of retailers and for spending overall. We're happy
to welcome back to the show now Kristen Ben's. She's president of Talented Blonde ll l C, a well recognized retail expert, and you can follow her on Twitter at the Talented Blonde Kristen. The headline retail sales of what down zero point one percent? Uh? Take out autos down minus point three and within that we saw weakness and some key things like building materials and department stores didn't look so hot. How does how do retailers look to
you broadly right now? Well? Not so hot as an understatement, as you know. And sure Kim Alwaya on on this shortly. Um, you know, retail it's a tough spot to be in right now. And what I'm seeing from these numbers is you know, I think the consumer is quite healthy. Um. I think she's healthy. I think she's spending. She's just not spending in traditional areas where Wall Street wants her
to spend. She's not spending at department stores. Um. But she's definitely spending online as we saw those non store retail numbers, which is a proxy for online spending in those world I believe sixteen point five percent. Correct me if I'm wrong, Kristen. I want to know whether we're going to have a digital Christmas, A digital Christmas. Yeah.
I think now we're in this you know, kind of Instagram Snapchat economy, and I think you're definitely going to have a digital Christmas, especially if Amazon has anything to say about that. It's all drones, man, drones. Yeah. I just do want to point out that maybe the uh six percent you saw was year over year, because according to Mickey Leafley over at Barrenburg, there was actually a zero point three percent decline in non story retail sales
in August and it was notable. Noticeable. Notable, he said, because it was the first decline since January of twenty fifteen. Non story retail sales have been growing at a solid pace as people book, you know, shift over to online buying. So I think at least Mickey Leavy was taking that as a bit of a red flag to even see
online sales pull back for a month. That was your and your just to clarify, Um, I'm not worried, uh with with the rise of retail that we're seeing in the way that people are buying, it's it's much more experiential, So experiences and experience a retail rule of the day. Um. You know, if you just take a look at any social media, it's less about what I'm wearing and more about where I am, what I'm doing. Time is luxury
and how are we spending that time. And I want to show the world what I'm doing with my time with my family, with my friends, with my partner, etcetera. And I think that is the new currency is experiences. I wanted to if I could get your your reaction to a report from red tail Next that says that digital sales are going to climb to six teament of total retail sales. That's up from fourteen point four last year, and that also includes in the perspective and eleven decline
in brick and mortar store traffic that happened in November. Absolutely. I mean, look what's happening with Macy's, which is you know, a proxy and you know I'm I'm an excellemnite, and so eight years ago today, you know, we were all too big to fail, right, including retail. And what people don't know is that Macy's is like the top three digital retailer out there. It's one of the largest internet
companies in the world. And if Macy's can't make that work, as we've seen with some massive store closings that they're planning, um, they begin an upgrade this week because of it, um, that doesn't bode well for the rest of retail. So really, we are obviously in that in that digital economy, and I do believe we will see a digital Christmas back
to you. Okay, so what about the home improvement chains, because they've been uh, you know, pretty popular with a lot of investors, they had a not so good quarter. Is this a one month affair? Is this a trend? Are our people pulling back from home improvement, which has been a pretty big trend for a while. I think it could be cyclical. But also if we want to look at companies like Airbnb and that whole trend of you know, um kind of renting your experience UM not
necessarily hotels, but also UM in other housing. I think people are going to start seeing this other revenue stream UM by you know, having people come in and occupy space and make money from that space, and that means
their home and oftentimes improving their homes. So I would see that that indust ruby bony well um as opposed to not what about the ups uh not a parcel service rate increase that's effective December the twenty six, that day, right after Christmas, US ground service daily delivery will increase by about five cent uh and the freight U UPS Freight announced an average of about a five percent channel
increase that was effect that's effective September. Well, I think you're going to see that, you know, cost of doing business for for lack of a better term, being passed on to the consumer and there's really nothing we can do about that, especially with all this sports drama. I think you're going to see a spike in retail pricing and definitely a spike in shipping. Is that kind of you know, plays its self out within the holiday season. I want to Thank you very much for joining us.
Kristen Bentz is president of Talented Blonde. They're based in Phoenix, Arizona. You can follow Kristen on Twitter at Talented Blonde. This is taking Stock, I'm pim Fox my co host Kathleen Hayes. This is Bloomberg. Yeah,