Are we recovering? Or should we go to recovery?

After posting a market report… at least lately… I get asked a question repeatedly…

Is it pointing to a recovery?

The market report says what it says.  I would love to say that this one points to a recovering market, but it doesn’t.  But it also doesn’t say we aren’t recovering.  Unfortunately, we can’t see if we are recovering until we are well down that path.  That will be the point when the deals are few and the competition is fierce.  Think of finding out about the big sale on the last day.  The picking are slim… pretty picked over.  But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a bunch of bargain hunters combing the bins.

It is WAY better to take a look before the floodgates open.

And the other one…

Sales are down 28% from last year, that can’t be good, right?

Actually, when sales are over last year, we will know we are recovering.  But that also means that the weaker year was… LAST YEAR.  If you are trying to get bargains, you want to buy in the weak year… not the year after the weak year.

I love consumer questions.  Feel free to shoot me a message.