Cooler Summer Than Normal Could Hurt Retail Sales -- So Could The Economy (Unemployment)

Yahoo!Finance is reporting:

Cooler-than-normal weather could be good for consumers but bad for retailers, according to one expert.

"From a consumer's point of view, there's going to be some great deals to be had for summer items,” said Paul Walsh, vice president of weather analytics at The Weather Channel. That’s because retailers will have to offer discounts to persuade shoppers to buy summer items when it feels like fall outside.

"People don't buy based on the calendar, they buy based on how it feels, and it just doesn't feel like summer anymore," Walsh explained.

But because they will be spending about 20 percent less to cool their homes, shoppers will have more disposable income for clothes, back-to-school necessities and other items, Walsh said.

"I think that the companies that are going to see the biggest negative impact, at least in the near term, are specialty-apparel retailers, department stores—even mass merchants that have a lot of summer items left over," Walsh said.

There are so many story lines here, I wish I had time to write about them all. But I have to move on. For the archives: a cooler summer than normal. The earth quit warming 15 years ago.

Back in April (2013) it was too much snow with resultant flooding. I normally don't associate too much snow with global warming, though activist "global warmers" will.

The nice thing about the Tea Party: it is flexible -- iced tea if the weather is too hot; hot tea if the weather is too cold. Unsweetened tea if Mayor Bloomberg is coming to the party; sweetened tea if you're a Texan. I guess. I really don't know. I don't drink tea.