The headlines of the Wall Street Journal read today that “Retail Sales Fall Again”……Except, there were a couple of bright spots…Off Price and General Merchandise. While the mid-range to end retailers like Abercombie , Macy’s , Nordstroms continue to get smashed due to the lack of purchasing power and credit of the consumer, companies like TJ Maxx , Marshalls and WalMart are tearing it up.

TJ Maxx posted posted 4% increase in same store sales and many other big box ‘tailers selling branded goods for cheap or dollar store items are literally on fire. These guys are raising earnings estimates and beating the heckle out the once might luxury brands.

What’s this mean for you?? Once again, and I go out on a limb to say this, the world of general merchandise, off price, dollar stores, flea markets and discounts continues to be recession proof. yeah, there’s been consolidation, inventories have tightened and some payrolls have been cut — but consumers still need to shop and people need necessities.

I had a sales meeting this morning and brought up an old saying a boss and well respected CEO told me years ago when we went through a dip in early part of the decade : ” When the economy is good, you’ll find a BMW at a WalMart; When it’s bad, you just find more”….. True. I can’t even count the number of “wealthy” individuals I know that have now adapted a Target shopping strategy.

My only advise for wholesalers and manufacturers in this industry is to bark loudly right now. He who barks loudly gets herd the most and if you aint’ advertising to kingdom come your competitors are going to smash you when it does rebound. Seen it too many times. As a testament to practicing what we preach, even we have increased our ad budget and SEO budget right now. It’s just too damn crucial to YOUR survival.

Happy Wholesaling!