Now that Christmas is over it’s time for more depressing economic news: retail sales this holiday season were awful. According to MasterCard Inc.'s SpendingPulse, total retail sales, excluding automobiles, fell 5.5% in November and 8% in December from the same time last year. The numbers are far worse than predictions, the most pessimistic of which predicted a 1% drop. “This will go down as the one of the worst holiday sales seasons on record," said one retail consultant. "Retailers went from 'Ho-ho' to 'Uh-oh' to 'Oh-no.'" Luxury goods, formerly untouchable, were the hardest hit, falling a whopping 34.5%.
Read it at The Wall Street Journal
