Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) – Shoppers “Didn’t Have the Time.”

This morning, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) reported that December holiday sales were much less than expected. It comes on the heel of reports that Americans actually cut back holiday spending this year.

Bed Bath & Beyond (Nasdaq: BBBY) reported lower sales as consumers clearly “did not have the time,” or the money. It joined a growing list of retailers who saw sales and income drop this Christmas.

Retail outlets are having great difficulty maintaining their levels of profitability as consumers cut back – massive sales and promotions don’t seem to be doing the trick. And for investors looking to profit, the outlook doesn’t look good.

But that doesn’t mean there weren’t companies with products that didn’t fly off the shelves. Nintendo’s (OTC: NYDOY) Wii consol and Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) products like the iPod and the iPhone were both in short supply in many stores.

Consumers have cut back spending, but it hasn’t dried up. Innovative and “hot” products may see the lion’s share of sales simply because consumers are trying to make every dollar count.

Companies mentioned in this article: WMT, BBBY, NYDOY and AAPL.

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