Adios Carrie Bradshaw

Watching re-runs of “Sex and the City” seems so retro amid the financial melt-down of 2008. The program that debuted in 1998 and concluded in 2004, followed the lives of four single women in New York City, as they obsessed about men (well, that’s actually not retro, that is thoroughly now) and spent hundreds of dollars on shoes. The program that put shoemakers Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo on the map (see Season 6, Episode 9: A Woman's Right to Shoes, original air date 8/17/03) now seems positively passé as Americans alter their spending patterns to meet the new reality of a recession.

Last week, the Commerce Department reported that retail sales fell by 2.8% in October, surpassing the old mark of a 2.65% drop in November 2001 in the wake of the terrorist attacks. It was the largest drop on record and the fourth consecutive monthly decline. The weakness in retail sales was led by a 5.5% plunge in autos, the biggest drop since August 2005. Carmakers said that last month was the worst in 17 years as potential buyers were spooked by the financial crisis and tightening credit conditions. Even without cars, sales of everything from furniture to clothing dropped off a cliff. Excluding autos, retail sales fell by 2.2%, also a record decline, underscoring the widespread weakness. Sales at general merchandise stores like Wal-Mart and large department stores fell by 0.4%, while sales at specialty clothing stores (the kinds that the women in “Sex and the City” used to frequent) were down a bigger 1.4%.

There were only slight glimmers in all of the gloomy data: mega-discounter Wal-Mart has fared better than most as its massive size allows it to pressure vendors for even cheaper prices. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, for every dollar spent on goods other than cars in the US over the last twelve months, 8.2 cents went to Wal-Mart or its warehouse sister store, Sam’s Club. That is a staggering market share, but it’s certainly not surprising that with house prices in the toilet, the stock market down 40% and 1.2 million jobs lost in 2008, that consumers are in full-fledged retreat. These folks are seeking the cheapest possible alternatives and thus far, they are finding those values at Wal-Mart.

Here is another glimmer of hope: the data confirms that consumers have woken up from their drunken stupor and have FINALLY stopped spending. With all due respect to the characters on Sex and the City, one has to wonder how a struggling freelance writer like Carrie Bradshaw could afford the $495 pair of shoes. If Carrie were with us today, she would be paying down debt and saving money to rebuild her balance sheet. Of course that is not the stuff of a particularly entertaining series, but it would help curb the excesses of the past two decades and allow our start to take control over her financial destiny. The never-to-be-produced sequel to “Sex and the City” would be “Parsimony across America”…not too catchy, but indeed, the bitter medicine that will help cure the nation’s economy. Adios Carrie Bradshaw!