I have seen heavy automotive traffic this weekend and heavy foot traffic in the stores. Part of the reason is that it is the first relatively non-rainy weekend in a month, but I imagine there is more to it than that.
Traffic doesn’t mean that shoppers are spending freely, though. The two busiest stores I saw were Starbucks and Goodwill, places where people wouldn’t plan on spending a lot of money. There was a wait in line at the dressing rooms at Goodwill, something I’m not sure I’ve seen before.
It may be that people are in a shopping mood again, but don’t feel they really have the money to spend. My own spending was less than $40 for a set of sheets, a saucepan, and a batter pitcher at Home Goods and 4 music CDs at Goodwill. It’s the kind of shopping trip that isn’t quite enough to keep the retailers in business.
