2008 Early Christmas shopping observation

By Fester:

My wife and I went to the Homestead Waterfront (the largest retail concentration in the Pittsburgh market) this morning to grab a quick breakfast and to browse for baby clothes.  Besides agreeing that our kid is going to be amazingly cute, there was almost no unusual foot traffic or car traffic at the center.  The parking lots were roughly 30% full, which might be a bit more than typical at 11:00 AM on a Saturday morning, but it was too easy to find a parking space.  Lines at the various stores we went to were never more than two or three deep, and there were numerous cashiers who were cleaning the front of their lanes. 

This is purely observational and non-random and non-generalizable, but it is not an indicator of a strong retail season.