Retailers, wholesalers, everyone….be prepared, there will be no Christmas this year.

There are certain seasons that you all count in for sizeable revenues. Back to school is one, Christmas is  another,  representing two of the most important spikes in the years revenue flow for the consumer market place.

We are mid way through the back to school spike and it is not spiking, it is very flat, as if it did not even occur. This is very bad news for many who depend on this seasonal spike as a second Christmas. Speaking of which, Christmas, the one season many count on for as much as 40% of your annual revenues collected between Thanksgiving and year  end…short and oh so sweet…..not this year, sorry. Christmas will not come this year, at least not to the consumer market place.

We must change our mind set, as these results are now very predictable and should be no surprise for anyone. With massive layoffs and unemployment, skyrocketing foreclosures, crashing stock market, there is far less interest in big time spending as we have gorged on in the past, and far more interest in paying off debt and saving some money. The consumers have changed their ways either by choice or by necessity.

Even those with jobs and savings, not in foreclosure danger and secure in their future, are spending less.  The days of runaway material consumerism, sport shopping, amassing goods not just buying, is over. You must adjust to this new attitude and reality. With unemployment in real figures being anywhere from 15-20%, this sector is not buying anything other then necessities. The next sector is working but earning far less, and spending less. The size of this sector is harder to determine but may be another 10-15%.

The next group of consumers live in fear, fear of becoming unemployed, cut back, or with reduced pay. There are the two job families where one lost their job thus impacting the entire families financial plan and habits.

There are the new entry’s into the market, recent college grads, still looking for their first job and not finding it. They are not spending either.

There will be no Back to School spike, there will be no significant Christmas spike, this is the way of the future…get used to it, plan for it, work with it, there is much you can do, but waiting for the customers to show up and spend with a drunken furor as in the past, with a commitment to ‘shop till they drop’ is fatal.

Get over it. Those days are over.

Plan accordingly, be prepared, make the necessary changes required by such projections…or perish waiting for the hordes to rush into your store waiving their credit cards and filling their carts, as in the past. They are not coming.