🛍️ The bargain bonanza that is Black Friday has begun. Only there are fewer special offers this year, and those that are being advertised aren’t quite so eye-catching.

You can blame the global supply chain meltdown for the lack of doorbusters trib.al/HI6L0GB
💰 Many Americans are still flush with Covid lockdown savings, while wage gains are also boosting household spending power.

Combine that with missing out on holiday festivities in 2020, and that’s made for buoyant consumer conditions trib.al/z1we2hl A coin is dropped into a piggy bank in this arranged photogr
Given the higher costs that retailers are facing — from spiraling freight rates to air-shipping goods from Asia — they had little choice but to cut down on promotions this year in order to protect profit margins trib.al/z1we2hl A picture of a sign that says, "Black Friday is on ever
Some retailers started their offers in October to capitalize on early consumer demand and having enough supply.

That may have contributed to U.S. retail sales rising by the most in seven months in October trib.al/z1we2hl A chart that says October is the new November. U.S. retail s
Across the U.S., deals are similar to or lower than in 2020, when they had already been reined in due to Covid.

There are some categories where special offers are heating up — such as beauty and toys — but some items are already in short supply trib.al/z1we2hl A picture of Barbie toys stacked up inside a shopping cart.
In the e-commerce market, Adobe found that discounts were weaker in:

📱 Electronics
🏈 Sporting goods
🔌 Electrical appliances

They were similar in TVs and furniture, while prices were rising in DIY products trib.al/z1we2hl A chart that says holiday promotions online are at similar o
Signs suggest supply-chain problems have peaked, but the scars of stock shortages — along with rising inflation — mean consumers now expect to pay more for what they want.

This creates an opportunity for retailers to reset their profitability trib.al/z1we2hl
The pent-up demand that characterized 2021 is likely to fade.

🧳 The proportion of Americans who plan to travel over the Thanksgiving holiday has more than doubled compared with 2020 and is ahead of 2019 levels trib.al/z1we2hl A chart that says holiday trips are back this year.
Inflation is eating into household spending power.

If Americans are having to pay more for the things they need, such as food, there will be less left over for the things they want.

U.S. consumer sentiment has dropped to a 10-year low trib.al/z1we2hl A chart that says higher inflation is taking its toll on con
❓ Why are discounts so scarce now? Items currently in shops were ordered earlier in the year before the true extent of consumer strength emerged.

Companies shouldn’t be lulled into a false sense of security by the current strength in spending trib.al/z1we2hl
This year’s extraordinary combination of soaring demand and constrained supply has given stores a golden ticket to end the vicious retail cycle of over-ordering and then deep-discounting to clear unwanted stock trib.al/z1we2hl

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More from @bopinion

22 Nov
🚘 The race to build and capture large swathes of the global electric vehicle supply chain is gathering pace.

It won’t be about who comes in first but who can do it best trib.al/6kSXefF
China is well ahead of the U.S. on EV battery supply chains.

While it has developed disparate parts of the supply chain, the U.S. is a long way from being ready to churn out hundreds of thousands of batteries that will power all of the vehicles forecast trib.al/XavnYnY A picture of a blue electri...
⚡️ What should manufacturers of batteries and cars commit to? It’s a tough call. Either you ...

A) Go with the best and safest technology to date
B) Wait it out and focus on the future without investing too much in what’s commercially viable today trib.al/XavnYnY
Read 10 tweets
20 Nov
Good news: The supply-chain crunch appears to have already peaked in the U.S.

Evidence keeps piling up to suggest that the U.S. is slowly but surely making progress in easing freight congestion and supply shortages bloom.bg/3oIZ4l3
🚢Average ocean freight rates for a 40-ft container have declined for 8 weeks
🚢Spot pricing for the Shanghai-Los Angeles trade route is down about 19% from its September peak
🚢There are fewer containers lingering for more than 9 days at the Port of L.A. bloom.bg/3oIZ4l3 container ship unloading at port of los angeles
The threat of fines for excessive dwell times at the port seems to have led to a meaningful improvement.

The ports of L.A. and Long Beach have delayed the penalties (which start at $100 a day and rise in $100 increments) until at least later in November bloom.bg/3oIZ4l3 container ship with evergreen written on the side unloads at
Read 10 tweets
19 Nov
India may appear to be stalling on climate goals, having fought to maintain coal use at the COP26 summit.

🚗 But it is successfully building awareness about electric vehicles trib.al/m5x7IDu
In Glasgow, India unveiled a government-run portal — E-Amrit — that’s a one-stop shop for all your EV questions.

From subsidies for drivers and manufacturers to charging facility locations and financing options, the goal is to boost consumer knowledge trib.al/xhYCkxw Image
⚡️🚗 This will shape the EV adoption story globally.

The more drivers know about their options — and the more governments can address worries about how far EVs can travel — the less likely they are to resort to old, fossil-fuel driven habits trib.al/xhYCkxw Image
Read 8 tweets
19 Nov
How weak is China’s economy? Recent data suggests it has slowed sharply.

It may not even be growing at all, given the unreliable nature of China’s domestic statistics. Most observers say the slowdown is due to the government’s attempt to stamp out Covid trib.al/klMMp5J
The property sector’s travails are more a symptom than a cause of China’s problems.

The nation’s economic model is probably broken, much like Japan’s was three decades before — and for similar reasons trib.al/8hiC5nn Image
Japan’s problems started when markets began to be liberalized in the early 1980s.

The corporate sector’s financial deficit started to balloon, meaning it spent much more than it earned.

The gap was filled by borrowing trib.al/8hiC5nn Bank credit to non-financia...
Read 9 tweets
13 Nov
It's conventional wisdom that the U.S. economy is built on Americans' endless appetite to buy lots of stuff.

Household consumption makes up 67% of GDP. When the economy falters, we're told spending is our patriotic duty. But it doesn't have to be this way trib.al/gIDH2vV
Suddenly, Americans can’t spend like they used to. Store shelves are emptying, and it can take months to find a car, refrigerator or sofa.

If this continues, we may need to — gasp! — live more like the Europeans. That actually might not be a bad thing trib.al/gIDH2vV
Americans haven't always acted like this.

Consumption per capita grew about 65% from 1990 to 2015, compared with about 35% growth in Europe. Household consumption makes up only about 50% of GDP in Germany trib.al/gIDH2vV
Read 12 tweets
11 Nov
The total value of all cryptocurrency assets has just exceeded $3 trillion.

This means the entire crypto sector is around 20% more valuable than the equity of the two biggest tech companies -- Apple and Microsoft -- put together trib.al/VUnXork
The previous crypto bull run peaked at the end of 2017 at about $800 billion.

In 2018, crypto crashed almost 90%. But over the next three years, crypto recouped the lost ground and is back at its peak valuation compared to tech companies trib.al/p8LQVoz Image
One way to analyze crypto valuation is to consider the sector like a tech company.

There are thousands of ideas out there: Some are traditional services that crypto can arguably deliver cheaper and better than centralized finance, others are entirely new trib.al/p8LQVoz Image
Read 9 tweets

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