Saturday, November 29, 2008

Gas prices, retail season

Gas is $1.83/gallon at the Arco this weekend. Apparently I was wrong about where it'd stabilize. It's been a long while since it's been under $2/gallon. It briefly dipped this low in early 2005, but the last time it was consistently this low was early 2004. Looking at oil futures, it doesn't look like there'll be upwards pressure any time soon, either. They lose traction every time they get above $55/barrel, mainly because demand just isn't there.

Black Friday I suspect has become black-and-blue Friday for retailers. The crowds appear to have been there, but not as much as expected and they're doing as much looking as buying. There's been no crowing from retailers and analysts yet, my guess is that sales weren't just below last year they were below even this year's pessimistic expectations. That's bad news seeing as how discounts were even deeper than last year. People just don't have the money to spend.

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