The consumer is dead for those who domicile themselves inside of shopping mallls. For those outside of them (ULTA, COST, TGT, HD, LOW) things are ok.
Target, the fourth-largest U.S. retailer, also raised the lower end of its earnings forecast for its fiscal year. It said it expected earnings of $4.65 to $4.75 per share, excluding special items, against its previous outlook of $4.60 to $4.75.
The Minneapolis-based retailer’s shares were up 2.8 percent at $74.36 in premarket trading. At Tuesday’s close, they had fallen nearly 4 percent this year.
Excluding special items, earnings came to 86 cents per share in the third quarter ended on Nov. 1, compared with 79 cents a year earlier.
Net sales rose 2.1 percent to 17.6 billion.
Analysts on average expected profit of 85.9 cents per share on sales of $17.57 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Target said sales at stores open at least a year rose 1.9 percent, beating the market consensus of 1.7 percent, according to research firm Consensus Metrix.
I find the retail landscape to be interesting now, with the very large box stores dominating the smaller players. Very soon, we will all shop from one store and buy things in an orderly fashion, like robots.
As an aside, Square prices its IPO today. So exciting (Colonel Landa voice).
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“Soylent green is ….people” extra heston …
I hope that within my lifetime the consumer just sits in the chair at the computer and orders food and drink online which the computer then feeds him. Nothing else is ordered online but movies, and YouTube operates at 25 cents per hour. People make bitcoins through commenting on websites and there is one commenting system that is provided by the government that all sites must use. The more likes you get the more you get paid and the more food, drink, and movies you can consume. That is the life I am personally looking forward to.