Holiday Sales Forecasts Still Stink

It’s that time of year when we all gather to give thanks for our blessings, overindulge in various foodstuffs, and, of course, go shopping.

Shopmas is also the time of the year when I call out the National Retail Federation for their bogus retail forecasts; they return the favor by calling me a Grinch. Sales forecasts drawn from the NRF’s annual survey have been consistently bad -- rarely even coming close to actual holiday retail sales numbers as reported by the Census Bureau -- and the methodology is unreliable.