Confident Consumers Out Shopping

I saw a busy weekend at retail in Downingtown and around the local area, with a normal busy Saturday followed by a surprising active Sunday. Notably, today I saw shoppers in the early stages of buying Christmas gifts in spite of the summer weather. The weather was favorable for shopping, and Sunday might have seen more early shoppers as football fans prepared for a late game on television, but that isn’t enough to explain the burst of shopping. It may also be a measure of consumer confidence, with employment continuing to grow and the risk of a government shutdown next week looking remote at this point.