TV sales becoming litmus test for U.S. economy

The television market offers a glimpse of the broader tensions between cautious consumers and desperate retailers.
(From The New York Times)

The story "TV sales becoming litmus test for U.S. economy" published November 29, 2008 at 10:36 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from The New York Times expires after 7 days.

[globalist_agenda]

Phil Gramm says you all are just whiners. Not everyone deserves a TV. If you can't afford one, go without. Just walk down to Circuit City and watch TV through the store window. While you're at it, sell some apples on the corner to earn your keep.

[mattumanu]

That has to be the dumbest comment I've seen around here this year. What? Are you 80 years old and living on a pension somewhere and experience big screen envy?

[Penguinisto]

Phil Gramm is right - there's folks in this world who don't even have clean drinking water, and you're going to b!tch and whine about folks having to go without an HDTV?

Damn - if the lack of an HDTV defines poverty, I want to live where you do.

/P

[mattumanu]

I hate auto playing video. I've said this over and over again and yet you people still have ads that play video automatically. The iPhone ad that plays at the top of the main page has no way to stop it after it starts. Therefore, I've blacklisted this site on my network for the weekend. We'll see what happens by monday.

[kieranmullen]

Matt use the free adblocker extension for firefox. No ads, faster page viewing and it also shrinks the page size to skip the ads. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

KieranMullen
http://360oregon.com

[Capissen]

I call shenanigans. While television sales may have largely been indicative of the health of the economy in past times, the huge conversion rate of consumers (especially young people) to internet-based entertainment could cause the same type of decline. Not to say that the U.S. economy isn't in shambles; just that there are better indicators.

[SpiritWater]

That magic number, besides free or $0, for me is around $800 for a 40" flat screen television. Almost there at $1000. I have held out for years with the tube televisions and truthfully can wait until those TVs blow-out, but $800 would get me digging in my wallet to seriously think about buying one.


Break the Wedge!
www.breakthewedge.com

[OokiiMamoru]

Polaroid 40" LCD 780p, can be had for around $699. Now if your wanting 1080p, which is mostly worthless for screens smaller than 50" you would be correct. 1080p models are around $998 at the medium model range. I will admit the Polaroid are not the best, but compared to anything from TTE (RCA, GE, Thomson) or Superior Entripriners, (Viore) is far , very far, from the worst. The picture and color tone are good for the price when compared to the Sanyo and/or Vizio. The biggest problem is the power supply, and even then I'll only hear back from a customer once every 4 months or so, and to be honest I see more Vizios come back than I see Polaroid TVs. On a sales ratio.

I know I'll be called out on the next one.

Just be sure to pick up a product care plan for better part and repair availability. I don't care what brand TV or retailer you buy from. You have no idea how many sad stories I hear in the South East about electrical storms taking out TVs, or winter stormers causing with power either. Ya, the store lines its pockets more, but I would much rather take your 70 than see you dealing with your insurance company or buying a new one outright. Or course my dollar ratio would be a lot higher, on second thought, don't buy the service plan. :-) Also if the device has an optical drive, chances are you will use it at least once in 3 years to get the unit fixed or cleaned. If I can guarantee anything will fail the optical drive is the safest bet.

Now in my store location, almost all the door buster TVs sold on Black Friday. All told, about 100 plus TVs in one day. Not to mention most of my regular stock, at the same price point on that day also. I saw a larger number of cash and debit customers vs. credit customers.

[bluemist9999]

Many people in the US have more pressing concerns than buying a new HDTV. Things like their mortgage, their utility bills, their credit card debt, their car payments.

Now that most people aren't able to use their houses as ATMs anymore, the abrupt drop in consumer demand is having a significant economic impact.

So why would HDTVs be immune to this? They are a lot cheaper than they used to be, but they are still big ticket items. And in economic downturns, big ticket items see the hit first.

[kieranmullen]

Mr Matt Richtel ,

How can it be a litmus test for the US Economy when there is price fixing occuring with LCD's? Perhaps the writer needs to read the news from his own site?

LG, Sharp, Chunghwa admit to LCD price fixing
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10095219-92.html

Prices need to drop more.

KieranMullen
http://360oregon.com