Portfolio.com discusses the WSJ write-up of the numbers: <http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/2008/12/26/retail-sales-datapoint-of-the-day?tid=true>
The part that caught my attention:
> The most telling datapoint in the article, I think, is this one:
>
>
>> Shopper traffic fell 27% compared with the same time last year, while
>> sales declined 5.3%, according to ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which tracks
>> sales in retail outlets nationwide.
>
>
> What this says to me is that shopping has moved from being a
> pleasurable activity -- think mall-as-destination -- to being an
> unpleasant chore. For many years, America's retailers were successful
> in making people want to go shopping, even if they didn't end up
> buying anything. Now, shopping is something to avoid where possible,
> and it's interesting that Amazon -- the shop for people who hate going
> shopping -- managed another record year.
SA