Consumers Skittish Despite Strong Retail Sales

Holiday Shopping | BCBusiness
Even with healthy retail sales, consumers are skittish in light of instability in the global economy.

While Canadians are pulling out their credit cards for some holiday shopping this season, consumer confidence dropped almost 10 per cent.

Holiday shoppers have really gotten into the spirit this season. The numbers report nationwide retail sales for September were around $36.8 billion, which is a marked improvement from the last few years.

However, the good news for retailers could only be temporary. A new survey from the Conference Board of Canada shows while shoppers were a little more freewheeling with spending this year, consumer confidence has dropped significantly.

Across Canada, confidence fell 6.5 points to 69.9 on the scale, which is the lowest level since the 2009 recession.

British Columbians are even more pessimistic — our confidence dropped 10.4 points.

The baseline is a 2002 level of 100 on the scale.

It’s no wonder consumers are feeling blue. We hear news almost daily from Europe warning of a potential economic collapse. The potential effects of a failed euro and lacklustre austerity measures across the pond have us rattled here in Canada.

We’ve also taken note of the delicate economy south of the border.

Obviously, we’ve learned some lessons from the 2009 recession and consumers seem poised to prepare for the worst.

For Christmas this year, let’s hope Santa brings us better news on the state of the global economy.