The State of Retail and the Hourglass Economy

(jckonline.com) - Last month, Signet reported negative comps. Of course, it’s not alone. Tiffany’s U.S. comps have been sinking for some time. Blue Nile and Birks are not showing much growth. So far, among public jewelry companies, it seems only Pandora is still performing well. Our industry has its own distinct challenges, of course, but in comments to my last post, Ben Janowski suggested we need to look at the bigger picture: The gap between the 10 percent and everyone else has become huge and is now out in the open. Signet sits right in the mid-market and is now confronting a public that has pulled back on discretionary spending, a condition that may not turn around soon, but may, in fact, get worse. It’s what experts are calling the hourglass economy.