Consumer Electronics Trumps Other Retail Sales

It doesn't appear to have been a good Christmas selling season, as this graphic by the Wall Street Journal illustrates.

But Best Buy says its December sales were up 1.5 percent over last year, compared to an increase of about seven percent in the 2006 over 2005 comparison. The company says the slower growth rate is due where the post-Thanksgiving week data was recorded. This year, that key week fell into the November numbers, instead of in the December reporting period.

Best Buy affirmed its 2008 guidance, suggested the company really did have stronger sales than it might appear. The contrast in sales might point to the increasing importance of consumer electronics as a component of discretionary spending.

That would accord with increasing broadband and mobile penetration, plus continuing interest in high-definition and flat screen TV displays, gaming, digital audio and even personal computers.

Over the past decade, for example, the percentage of disposable income now going to communications and electronic entertainment goods has been rising in virtually all North American, Far Eastern and European regions.