California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.

The national retail and food sales figures for December were released by the
U.S. Department of Commerce.  The numbers showed a 0.4 percent decrease
over the month but a 4.1 percent over the year.  Total sales for December were
$382.9 billion. This is the first decline in retail sales in six months and far more
than economists had forecasted.

Retail sales for 2007 grew 4.2 percent; however, this was the weakest growth since
2002. Declines illustrated by the Commerce Dept. were seen over the year in electronics,
clothing stores and sporting goods.

The International Center Shopping Centers identified that numbers for department store
sales were mixed with lower sales being characterized as ‘conservative’ with a 2.2 percent
gain reported year over year.

However, the firm comScore which forecasts and identifies on-line sales illustrates that
Americans spent 20 percent more on-line in 2007 spending $29.17 billion along with
coining a new day for the most sales on line as ‘Green Monday’, the second Monday
in December, subverting ‘Black Monday’ for that term.

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.