…the disconnect between retail sales and jobs.  But check out this chart:

The same thing happened in the mid 90’s, an absolute boom period.  What was going on….? Gas prices collapsed, just like now. Gas as a percentage of total sales has dropped by a third. Even stripping out gasoline isn’t totally clean either – the likes of Costco, Walmart and WaWa all sell gas as well.

We think the jobs picture is more important.