Ironic, most voted for him with hopes of lower prices.
Faced with economic anxiety, retailers pare expectations for the year
Several retailers this week lowered their annual forecasts while expressing wariness about tariffs and consumer spending.
Retailers sent a clear message to investors and analysts this week: Don’t expect much growth this year.
Companies such as Target, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Best Buy recently painted a gloomy picture for the upcoming year as consumers contend with stubborn inflation and potential fallout from President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported goods. Other retail chains signaled weak expectations for consumer spending even before trade impacts hit.
Retailers want to proceed with caution as they weigh the volatility that tariffs and other economic challenges could bring, said John Mercer, head of global research at Coresight, a retail data firm. “There’s so much unpredictability that I think companies want to play it quite safe” with their financial projections, Mercer said.
Recent consumer sentiment surveys show Americans now feel worse about their finances and inflation than they did shortly after the election. Consumer sentiment had generally been rising since June, according to a closely watched metric from the University of Michigan, but it declined for two straight months at the start of 2025.
Slowdowns in hiring, manufacturing and home purchases have recently raised fears of a weakening U.S. economy. After years of resilience, consumers in 2025 may be stretched too thin to sustain another year of strong spending, said Brandon Svec, head of U.S. retail analytics at CoStar Group, a provider of data and analysis for real estate markets.
That trend is troubling for companies that sell discretionary products such as apparel, home goods and accessories, Mercer said. Those retailers have spent years trying to attract cautious consumers with discounts and deals and now have little room to jump-start weary spenders, especially if inflation continues to tick up, Svec said.
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/03/08/retail-outlook-tariffs/
Do something positive.
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