Money Has To Be Spent

[globalcookie]

Any truth?

Happened to hear this speaker from banking, that said something about Singaporeans gg on holiday next month.

Interesting point was, property cooling measures means ppl don't buy 2nd property. LTV resulted in ppl being unable to change car so readily. So excess money needs to be spent somehow.

A bit to accept but possibly true. Spend for e sake of spending.

[taygu]

Dun quite agree on people no buying second property.

[globalcookie]

It's just bigger illustration of money 'needs' to be spent that the speaker used. Not necessary to say ppl not buying 2nd property or getting/changing car thus gg on holiday.

Generally what he probably means is, consumers tjese days just wants to spend. The value of savings has diminished over e years.

Another noteworthy point was. Demand not necessarily drives supply but supply is driving demand.

How marketers targets these 2 group if consumers changes businesses culture, revenue.

Consumers doesn't go to malls to buy as much as it used to. Now shops can't target shippers it used to. Brands starting to use shop fronts to create the human touch.

[hkh]

Why phone makers keep pushing out new models ?? It is to stir interest and encourage spending........ only old folks like me would stick to older and older models........

[loveikan]

encourage to spent in SGP, to keep the money moving.....can help to stimulate the home economy..hahahahahaha

[richardg]

disposable income

[globalcookie]

Originally Posted by hkh

Why phone makers keep pushing out new models ?? It is to stir interest and encourage spending.......

Supply drives demand.

Before the item is out, a lot of hype to create awareness and create demand.

Take that 11.11 sales in Alibaba, the recent Black Friday sale, etc. These are all supply driving demand.

[Ong88]

Retail apocalypse

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retail_apocalypse


The retail apocalypse refers to the closing of a large number of American retail stores beginning in 2016.[5] Over 4,000 physical stores are affected as American consumers shift their purchasing habits due to various factors, including the rise of e-commerce.[6] Major department stores such as J.C. Penney and Macy’s have announced hundreds of store closures, and well-known apparel brands such as J. Crew and Ralph Lauren are unprofitable.[7] Of the 1,200 shopping malls across the US, 50% are expected to close by 2023.[8] The retail apocalypse phenomenon is related to the middle-class squeeze, in which consumers experience a decrease in income while costs increase for education, healthcare, and housing. Bloomberg stated that the cause of the retail apocalypse “isn’t as simple as Amazon.com Inc. taking market share or twenty-somethings spending more on experiences than things. The root cause is that many of these long-standing chains are overloaded with debt—often from leveraged buyouts led by private equity firms.”[9] Forbes has claimed that media hype is over exaggerated, and the sector is simply evolving.[10]

[Ong88]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatsp.../#7c49859788bf


Adjusting To The New Reality

As Jessica Rabe from Convergex points out in her “Memo From Millennials To Janet Yellen,” millennials are used to the idea of long-term low inflation.

“We live in a tech-based economy, where transparency relentlessly pressures prices. For millennials, lower prices show the economy is working well, rather than dampen consumption,” Rabe writes.

Whereas baby boomers grew up with the high inflation of the 1970’s, millennials have seen prices rise less than 2% annually since 2000. The generation that just become the largest segment of the population is comfortable with the idea of perpetually low inflation and expects more disruptive innovations that will lower costs for the broader population.

This trend towards lower prices through innovation could become even more pronounced in the future. Over the past twenty years, entertainment and luxury items have become much cheaper, but the costs of necessities such as food, housing, healthcare, education, and childcare have grown steadily.

Many in-process innovations hold the promise of bringing down the costs for these necessities. Here are a few:

The increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence and robotics could automate some of the work done by doctors, teachers and nannies.
Best practices in medicine, teaching and childcare can be broadcast globally at very low cost (e.g. MOOC’s and Khan Academy).
3D-Printed homes are already happening and could become more economical to build before too long.
A wide array of innovations ranging from self-driving tractors to artificially created meat hold the promise of a radically cheaper food supply.
In fact, we’re already seeing some evidence for costs falling in these areas. Food prices in the U.S. have nearly set a 50-year record for the longest declining stretch. Housing inflation is starting to slow down in major cities. Numerous public and private universities are putting a freeze on tuitions.

Many business leaders are already predicting that technological innovation will have a radical impact on our daily lives. Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecom tycoon and fourth richest man in the world, believes we’re headed towards a three-day workweek.

While he acknowledges that this development may be still a ways away, it makes sense in a world of improved productivity and an increasing amount of automation. Businesses can afford to higher multiple employees with productivity so high, employees can afford to work less with a lower cost of living, and if robots keep doing more jobs there might not be enough jobs available for humans to work five days a week

[Ong88]

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-retail-debt/


America’s ‘Retail Apocalypse’ Is Really Just Beginning


By Matt Townsend, Jenny Surane, Emma Orr and Christopher Cannon
November 8, 2017

The so-called retail apocalypse has become so ingrained in the U.S. that it now has the distinction of its own Wikipedia entry.

The industry’s response to that kind of doomsday description has included blaming the media for hyping the troubles of a few well-known chains as proof of a systemic meltdown. There is some truth to that. In the U.S., retailers announced more than 3,000 store openings in the first three quarters of this year.


But chains also said 6,800 would close. And this comes when there’s sky-high consumer confidence, unemployment is historically low and the U.S. economy keeps growing. Those are normally all ingredients for a retail boom, yet more chains are filing for bankruptcy and rated distressed than during the financial crisis. That’s caused an increase in the number of delinquent loan payments by malls and shopping centers.

Late payers


The reason isn’t as simple as Amazon.com Inc. taking market share or twenty-somethings spending more on experiences than things. The root cause is that many of these long-standing chains are overloaded with debt—often from leveraged buyouts led by private equity firms. There are billions in borrowings on the balance sheets of troubled retailers, and sustaining that load is only going to become harder—even for healthy chains.

The debt coming due, along with America’s over-stored suburbs and the continued gains of online shopping, has all the makings of a disaster. The spillover will likely flow far and wide across the U.S. economy. There will be displaced low-income workers, shrinking local tax bases and investor losses on stocks, bonds and real estate. If today is considered a retail apocalypse, then what’s coming next could truly be scary.

Until this year, struggling retailers have largely been able to avoid bankruptcy by refinancing to buy more time. But the market has shifted, with the negative view on retail pushing investors to reconsider lending to them. Toys “R” Us Inc. served as an early sign of what might lie ahead. It surprised investors in September by filing for bankruptcy—the third-largest retail bankruptcy in U.S. history—after struggling to refinance just $400 million of its $5 billion in debt. And its results were mostly stable, with profitability increasing amid a small drop in sales