The Beige Report

Eight times a year each of the twelve Federal Reserve Bank districts gather anecdotal information on current economic conditions in its district through reports from bank branch directors and interviews with key business contacts, economists, market experts and other sources.

They report their findings in what is known as The Beige Book. San Francisco is the 12th District and here are some excerpts from the June 9, 2010 report:

"Retail sales remained somewhat lackluster on net but continued to improve modestly"

"Both traditional department stores and discount chains reported increases in sales, and although consumers remained focused on necessities, contacts noted further increases in demand for some nonessential items and higher priced options".

"Sales remained strong for grocers and and continue to improve for sellers of furniture and household appliances. Similarly, retailers of home remodeling supplies and equipment saw robust levels of activity"

"Conditions continued to improve for the tourism and leisure sector"

My company's national director of research also recently provided me with an extensive Same Store Sales Tracker report which tracks sales figures (on a national basis) of key retailers in various sectors and the facts were awesomely brilliant* in the sense they are remarkably striking as to the extent to which the economy got hit.

Note the following examples which compare same store sales for these retailers from the quarter noted to the same quarter for the prior year:

Ann Taylor
Q1 2009: - 42.70%
Q1 2010: + 15.10%

Guess
Q1 2009: -12.50%
Q1 2010: +9.70%

Juicy Couture
Q1 2009: -22.10%
Q1 2010: +4.00%

Urban Outfitters
Q1 2009: -6.20%
Q1 2010: +9.00%

Pottery Barn
Q1 2009: -22.60%
Q1 2010: +22.30%

Borders
Q1 2009: - 13.50%
Q1 2010: - 11.40%

Office Depot
Q1 2009: - 17.00%
Q1 2010: - 1.00%

Tiffany
Q1 2009: -34.00%
Q1 2010: +15.00%


* it's much more fun to see brilliance as the very funny Paul Whitehouse does though. Hope you enjoy!