41 Quotes by Delos Smith

It's a bad Christmas if you're a retailer. It's not a material Christmas. You can't forget this. I don't think the country can forget it.

It's the biggest market we have, because people don't live in empty houses.

It looks like a nice start but it's hard to tell, hard to have a perspective until we start seeing the cash register receipts. It's hard to tell, but it's perfect shopping weather.

Does that have economic implications? To me, the answer is yes. In a sense, we have to wait for recovery until this group wants to sleep with each other again.

Consumers right now are bargain hunters, and that's what Wal-Mart is talking about. If you're offering a bargain and the consumer thinks it will go away, you'll get the consumer to buy, but there is no impulse buying going on.

Consumers had a nice July and August. Unfortunately, they're on their own for the fourth quarter, which starts on Wednesday. Going into 2004, spending is going to be based on wage and salary growth, which needs a boost.

This is a very nervous country. How much it's going to dampen the economy, I don't know, but it's hard to see people relaxed and creating a boom.

The consumer, I think, is healing. There's still a lot of market share out there. I don't think we've drained anything away.

Housing starts would be much much higher if they could find the people to build the homes.