It's going to be a one-time pop, and it's not going to be much of a pop, either.

It is a good time if you're willing to accept slow growth and slow improvement. We do not anticipate at this time that the foreseeable future will bring a real strong massive upturn in consumer spending.

These two companies gave a must-have lesson for all retailers, Sharper Image combed the globe for unusual and exciting products that weren't run-off-the-mill ... Retailers made the mistake of taking customers for granted and the payoff came two weeks ago in much weaker Christmas sales because of ho-hum kind of merchandise.

One word - dismal. There's nothing else to be said but absolutely dismal.

They feel they no longer need to go broke when they go shopping,

July was a washout, a bust, whichever way you want to call it, unless you were a discount retailer,