Discounters Rule

ChangeWave tells us that consumer electronics is one of the weakest spending categories in the US in the run up to the Thanksgiving holiday period. This will be no surprise to most of us, but the dramatic change from previous years just might be.

One of the charts used by ChangeWave is based on answers to a simple question: 'Will you be spending more or less money on consumer electronics over the next 90 days?'.

- In November 2006, the answer was 52% said 'spending more', while 24% said 'spending less';

- In November 2007, the answer was 39% said 'spending more', while 23% said 'spending less';

- In November 2008, the answer was 19% said 'spending more', while 43% said 'spending less'.

And for those who are going to spend their hard earned cash, "people are favouring stores such as Wal-Mart and Costco for electronics ", says a Bloomerg article, and not the likes of Best Buy or Circuit City.