Real Impact of Retail

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

July 15, 2024

The Delaware Retail Council (our National Retail Federation affiliate) sits under our larger Delaware State Chamber of Commerce umbrella, and it is a growing part of our membership. A very big part of the American economy is consumer spending and that is typically done at retail stores. I’ve reported here before that this important piece of our economy is changing since the largest generation of all time, the Baby Boomers, is almost fully into retirement and entering the years when we simply buy less clothes, lawn mowers, and such. The following generations are much smaller, with many already carrying substantial debt loads, thus making the consumer spending segment of the economy smaller.

A recent retail trends study indicated that consumer spending in 2023 was lower than in 2022, while advertising spend has kept pace or grown slightly. The CNBC story concludes that consumers are looking to save on essentials to free up what they can for non-essentials. This makes visibility and retail partnerships more strategic and important than ever. It’s these trends and more that we’ll cover at Developing Delaware Conference this October. One of our keynote speakers will be Mark Mathews, director of research at the National Retail Federation, who will certainly give a presentation worthy of your time. As the economy changes, these trends will be something every business leader needs to understand.

News You Can Use

We kick off a busy week with remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Powell at noon, followed by June U.S. retail sales and May business inventories on Tuesday. Wednesday is about the all-important figures from June for housing starts and building permits. The Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey is released Thursday, as are the U.S. leading economic indicators for June.

Several State Chamber members have earnings calls this week as we lead off Tuesday with calls from Bank of America, PNC, Morgan Stanley, UnitedHealth Group, Fulton Financial, and J.B. Hunt Transport. Citizens Financial Group, Johnson & Johnson, Ally Financial, U.S. Bancorp, Discover Financial Services, Kinder Morgan, and Alcoa are among the calls scheduled for Wednesday. Thursday calls include Abbott Laboratories, Cintas, D.R. Horton, Domino’s Pizza, M&T Bank, Netflix, PPG Industries, and more. We close out the week with calls from American Express, Comerica, Halliburton, Travelers Companies, and others.

Michael J. Quaranta

President

Delaware State Chamber of Commerce

Uniquely Delaware

Retail is the nation’s largest private-sector employer, driving the U.S. economy and supporting 55 million jobs in communities across the country. Retail supports 26% of jobs in Delaware. Learn more >

When The Home Depot was founded in 1978, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank had no idea how revolutionary this new “hardware store” would be for home improvement and the retail industry. Today, they're proud to be the world’s largest home improvement retailer with more than 2,300 stores across North America.

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