Continue reading Car makers try offering free or discounted gas as an incentive

Car makers try offering free or discounted gas as an incentive originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Where are Americans spending their rebate checks? Apparently Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST). Both reported fantastic sales for May. Wal-Mart explicitly tied their success to the checks. "We're seeing some benefits from the stimulus checks," Wal-Mart Chief Executive Eduardo Castro-Wright said in a company press release. Wal-Mart same store sales were up 3.9% (4.4% if you include gas).

Costco sales were even better, up 5% from last year (7% if you count gas). Costco saw sales of $5.77 billion, up about $600 million. The theory is that people are turning to Wal-Mart and Costco because we're broke and because we're so freaked out by gas prices, we'd rather just drive to one big store. Nice theory, but Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) is in the same business and saw sales drop 0.7%.

How many of us have spent our rebate checks at Wal-Mart and Costco? About 73% of Costco's stores are in the U.S. (The foreign stores got a big boost from the weak U.S. dollar). So, let's say very roughly 73% of Costco's $600 million sales increase was in the U.S. Or, Costco took in an extra $438 million thanks to the rebate checks. (Yeah, I know, the sales probably would've been up anyway, if only for inflation). At Wal-Mart domestic stores saw a $1.4 billion increase. Assuming we all spent our $600 in one place (just to make the math simpler), that would mean a little over 3 million of us (3,063,333) spent our rebated checks at Wal-Mart and Costco in May.

About 3 million rebate checks spent at Wal-Mart and Costco originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With global markets selling off on fears that President Bush's stimulus package won't be enough to stave off a recession, The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) on how Americans might spend the $150 billion in refund payments Uncle Sam may dole out: "At that rate, consumers could expect to receive checks ranging from $600 to $1,000 per household. Consumers are likely to pick one of three options for the money: Spend it, use it to pay down debt, or save it."

Well wasn't that enlightening? Apparently sagging home values and a sputtering economy have pulled the fourth option off the table: burning the rebate checks in a satanic ritual involving incense and The Ethel Merman Disco Album.

On a slightly more serious note, there is an air of cynicism surrounding the whole stimulus package (Quotes from the WSJ piece):

Continue reading What will people do with their tax rebate checks?

What will people do with their tax rebate checks? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.