75 Quotes by Richard Hastings

Weaker spending on seasonal goods has been building up for four months now. The two factors hurting consumers particularly at the low- and middle-income levels are that wages have not grown and gasoline prices could go even higher.

To be concerned about the strength of consumer spending is wise. Wal-Mart as a barometer of consumer spending is significant. Consumer spending will start to moderate off of its hot pace in the second-half of the year.

The outlook for them this year is the best it's been in about the last three years.

Wal-Mart's much slower rate of sales growth in November clearly shows this is a matured global business. As supermarket goods continue to increase as a percentage of sales -- and this includes consumables and perishables sold in big volume at Sam's Club -- we will expect to see a persistently slower rate of top line growth.

The fact that the Chinese currency is pegged to the dollar helps eliminate the inflationary effect on goods from China, ... The U.S., however, doesn't see that benefit from its other trading partners.

This remains one of the most interesting major retailing case studies in the past 20 years.

We believe Lewis is the better person to lead a customer-centric business,

What's holding up the consumer is habit. Until things change in a very material manner, American consumers won't alter their shopping habits significantly. The jobs market is strong and there's been a little bit of improvement in wage growth. I still don't believe that gas prices are high enough to derail consumers. If there is one thing that could shake consumers it's the housing market and not gas inflation.

With Christmas Eve falling on a Friday, sales have the potential of being very intense.