Shopping Around Inclement Weather

The weather map doesn’t look favorable for the key final weekend of Christmas shopping, with unpleasant or dangerous weather occurring in most places in the United States between now and Sunday night. In my area most Saturday shopping will be preempted by snow followed by sleet and rain. The weather should be bad news for retailers, but it depends on shoppers’ intentions. There was heavy shopping traffic tonight locally, with shoppers deciding to get to the stores ahead of the storm. You can’t tell from traffic how much people are spending, but at least it seems shoppers are willing to make an extra effort to reach their holiday purchasing goals.