

YOU SMOOZE THEM AND MAKE THE DEAL TRUMP SERIES
They plan a series of promotions peaking at what promises to be the biggest sales day of the year: the Saturday before Christmas. "Given the hefty decline a year ago and sales trends we've seen this year, general merchandise sales will likely get a lift of 2 to 4 percent," said Mike Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers.įor the ritual start to their busiest shopping season of the year, local malls are decked out in holiday finery. "I see a sales gain as high as 2.5 percent," said Richard Hastings, an economist with Global Hunter Securities who monitors retail chains as a credit risk. Some forecasters think the favorable comparison to last year will make for rosier results that propel economic growth. Consumers may spend slightly more this year, but high unemployment will keep spending down, forecasters say. Last year's retail holiday debacle included a 3.4 percent sales decline. So how much consumers loosen up on discretionary spending this holiday season is the next big harbinger of how the economy is recovering.

gross domestic product, the most commonly accepted measure of the economy. By about 4 a.m., we get a big lull when most move on to the big-box stores, then go to the malls."Ĭonsumer spending is two-thirds of the U.S.
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last Black Friday, marketing director Sara Ozgun advised how to be one of the first 500 shoppers who show up in pajamas and slippers to win a goody bag of coupons, a Jockey nightshirt and one of five randomly placed $500 gift cards. Retailers call all this "creating excitement" to get people shopping, and this time they need all the hoopla they can get.Īt Ellenton, which drew 40,000 shoppers between midnight and 8 a.m. "It's about being more convenient when the customer is out there," said Toys "R" Us spokesman Bob Friedland, promising hard-to-find Zhu Zhu hamsters will be available at both times.īecause many shoppers use Black Friday pricing to bag all their family's holiday toys in one predawn stop, it's also about being the first toy store to open. And Toys "R" Us will stage twin doorbuster events with 70 heavy-demand toys at midnight and 50 different ones at 5 a.m. While Trump promised to end "forever wars," he relaxed the rules of engagement for airstrikes in Afghanistan in 2017, and under his watch, civilian casualties in the county rose 330% from 2016.Meantime, Disney Stores and Toys "R" Us pushed early morning openings back to midnight. He declared an end to the US combat mission in the country in December 2014, but the war was nowhere near finished - and US troops remained in Afghanistan when Obama left office. In 2014, Obama shared a timeline to bring US troops home by 2016. President Barack Obama drastically ramped up America's troop presence in Afghanistan in 2009 - a move that Biden opposed as vice president. As time would show, this was exceptionally premature. In May 2003, the Bush administration declared that "major combat" was over in Afghanistan. Bush, who within the first month of the conflict rejected an offer from the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden in exchange for the US to stop bombing the country. The war in Afghanistan began in October 2001 under President George W. Bush speaks at his first news conference after his reelection on November 4, 2004, at the White House. The Afghan military consistently struggled with endemic corruption and discipline issues, exhibiting few signs that it could defeat the Taliban without US assistance. The US invested $83 billion in training and equipping Afghan forces, with little to show for it. Over the years, Americans were repeatedly told that the US was turning a corner in Afghanistan, but there was rarely evidence to back that up. The war in Afghanistan has been chaotic from start to finish, with US troops often unsure of their mission as multiple administrations - both Republican and Democratic - misled the public about the state of the conflict. But the US's ultimate failure in Afghanistan cannot be laid at the feet of a single president or administration. There is ample evidence that the US withdrawal has been rushed and sloppy, particularly when it comes to helping vulnerable Afghans who assisted the US during the conflict. It often indicates a user profile.īiden in a statement on Saturday placed blame on Trump for the chaos in Afghanistan, saying that he'd inherited a deal that "left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001." From Bush to Biden, US presidents failed in Afghanistan Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
