Alberta shoppers pull back

September 22, 2011

CALGARY, AB, Sept. 22, 2011/Troy Media/ – Retail activity is one of the clearest signals we have to gauge how well the economy is operating. While Alberta has been a bit of an island of optimism in mid-2011, shoppers here appear to be pausing.

Retail sales in Alberta slipped 1.2 per cent in July to $5.167 billion (seasonally adjusted figure). This was the second month in a row for the province in which retail activity fell. However, total sales are still 5.5 per cent higher than they were in the same month last year.

Nationally, retail sales also dropped but by a lesser amount (-0.6 per cent month-over-month) to $37,546 billion. Statistics Canada’s press release this morning notes that “Lower sales were reported in 7 of 11 subsectors, with motor vehicle and parts dealers accounting for most of the decline. Excluding motor vehicle and parts dealers, retail sales were flat.”

Lower retail sales in Alberta may be the result of some pull-back among shoppers after a very active spring; sales rose more than 2 per cent between January and May (see graph). While that amount of increase may not seem large, it also came at a time when the rest of the global economy was heading into a slow-down. Some consumer fatigue among shoppers – even in Alberta – was bound to set in.

Moving into the second half of 2011, it is unclear how Alberta consumers will react. On one hand, employment and wages have continued to outperform the rest of the country, which should help boost confidence (particularly for consumer durables such as autos and home furnishings). But the summer was also filled with dismal economic news, much of it stemming from Europe and the U.S. This could drag down Albertans’ shopping sentiment even more.

| ATB Financial

Related posts:

1. Alberta shoppers out in full force in April
2. Albertans back in the driver’s seat