Right About Now with Ryan Alford
BUSINESS NEWS: Consumer Sentiment Tanking & It's Time for a Plan - Ecomm Coming for more Retail - Your Next Investment Opportunity
Fri, 28 Mar 2025
SUMMARYIn today’s Weekly Business News episode, hosts Ryan Alford and Chris Hansen discuss the current economic climate, focusing on a significant decline in consumer sentiment revealed by a University of Michigan survey. They express concerns about inflation, government policies, and their impact on consumer behavior. The hosts also explore retail trends, noting the closures of stores like Forever 21 and GameStop, and the rise of e-commerce platforms such as Shein and Temu. They emphasize the need for better communication from the administration and highlight the importance of adapting to changing consumer preferences in a digital age.TAKEAWAYS Decline in consumer sentiment as reported by the University of Michigan survey. Concerns about the overall economic climate and inflation. Impact of government policies on consumer behavior and the need for better communication. Retail sector challenges, including store closures of brands like Forever 21 and GameStop. Shift in consumer shopping habits towards e-commerce platforms like Shein and Temu. GameStop's strategy to invest in Bitcoin as a response to retail challenges. Emotional aspects of investing and the volatility of GameStop's stock. Nostalgia for physical media and the transition to digital formats in entertainment. Importance of understanding consumer preferences and emotional drivers in business. The need for businesses to adapt to the changing economic landscape and consumer behavior. If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE. Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding. Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What is the current state of consumer sentiment in the US?
Some are yearly, some are quarterly, some are monthly. But it's really about consumer sentiment and about how people feel. You know, I think the numbers probably won't surprise you. They didn't surprise Chris and I as we were looking at them. And we're going to dive deep into that because I think this administration has been guns a-blazing in things that they're doing.
And many of the policies, I think, we tend to agree with directionally. But at the same time, a word of caution has kind of been coming from us with things lately, how we've felt like, at least in our circles, things have felt. And the studies have come out on the overall consumer sentiment, how people are feeling, both currently and future thinking, because it's also built into that.
What's your prognosis? How do you feel about the future? And some of these numbers are staggering. And I think we're at a real pivotal point where the policymakers and the Central Reserve and a lot of people really need to take a look at this because. People think with their head and they buy with their heart. And literally, people are not buying.
Chapter 2: How is the economic climate affecting consumer behavior?
You've got money staying on the shelf if there is some. You've got tightening of the wallet overall. You've got interest rates that have been stagnant and real estate market that's stagnant in a lot of markets.
And I think we're coming to a head with where if we don't get ahead of getting consumers feeling positive about the changes, feeling positive about the economy, feeling positive about the potential of real estate opportunities, we're in for a tough road. And the sentiment of the country drives the economic behavior of the country. and we're going to dive deep into that today.
But I think it's time that we really point out, hey, let's talk the good, bad, and the other. We take the BS out of stuff. We're going to take it out today. And so we're going to dive deep into some of these stats. I think some might be surprising, some might not be, and talk about a few other business updates of the day here on the Business News of the Week.
Chris, I know, I mean, let's just jump right into it, man. We've been kind of talking about this, like, I think more our own sentiment, right? The last few episodes, like, eh, look, we need some good news. Feels a little gloomy, a little flat, a little stagnant.
And one of these, which is a survey of consumers from the University of Michigan, the preliminary results for March, looking at the index of consumer sentiment, how do they feel about the country? And it slid another 11 points. We're at 57.9 is the consumer sentiment, which is hovering right around, you know, half feel good, half feel bad. And that's a 27% negative change year over year.
In March of 2024, we were at 79.4. It's a big drop, dude.
It's a massive drop.
And you can feel it. Yeah. And, you know, take the who was president out of it. It's just whoever's in charge needs to be paying attention. We can't just heads down a blazing, you know, getting all these policies, you know, all these campaign promises done without recognizing what is the sentiment of... And this is covering Republicans, Democrats, everyone else. Everyone's just kind of...
Eh, meh about the overall economy. A lot of money is staying put in the wallet, in the savings account, and it's a lot tighter for everyone else because inflation is still an issue. It's not good, man.
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Chapter 3: What role do government policies play in the economic outlook?
Yeah. I mean, I like data and facts and right. You know, so we've we've been talking sentiment, talking things like perceptive. And then, you know, you look at this data and, you know, back to the White House, like I think there's got to be some balance here. Like we can want to do the tariff war and it can have positive long term effects, right?
But it's got to be balanced out with the realities of today and the sentiment today, the inflation of today. And again, I'm not going to sit here as an economic specialist to tell you whether that long term benefit outweighs the short term pressure that we're feeling. I'm not. I don't know. That's past my pay grade. But I will say you can't ignore how the majority of America is feeling.
It's just reality. And this was the biggest thing. I mean, look at this. Despite their greater confidence following the election, Republicans posted a sizable 10% decline in their expectations index in March. So this isn't partisan. This is everybody.
Yeah. Well, especially when, you know, the market takes a hit. Right. I think of the retirement generation. I don't doesn't matter what political class you are. If the market goes down and you look at that retirement account is down, you're not going to feel good. Right. Especially if you're on, you know, what do they call it? Like set payments. Right. You're on a lot of money.
Fixed income, right? Market goes down, then you look at the grocery store, right? And that still hasn't really eased up much pressure as far as inflation goes there. I have an example, but I can't remember it now.
It'll come back. I'm going to go through a couple of these other things. While current economic conditions were little changed, expectations for the future deteriorated across multiple facets of the economy, including personal finances, labor markets, inflation, business conditions, and stock markets. Many consumers cited the high level of uncertainty around policy and other economic factors.
Frequent gyrations in economic policies make it very difficult For consumers to plan. There it is right there. You know, like that's it. That's kind of what you were saying. Fixed income. You got this stuff going on. You want to plan. You can't plan when you don't know what the impact of these things are going to do. So there needs to be more discussion about short term, long term.
And hey, I mean, and this ain't cutting it. There'll be a little pain in the short term. define what that means, please.
What a short term. Yeah. An example today I did see, and I was digging, right? Because we do the show. I saw that India basically was kind of lighting up the, on the tariff for, and they had said they would drop a lot of the, the, the tax on imported American goods. So it looks like positive news there, right? Yeah. But we haven't seen that on any headlines, right? No. Talking about that.
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Chapter 4: Why is clear communication from the administration crucial?
Or get the damn inflation down and get, you know, the interest rates cut.
Almost like in the election speeches, right? When you're campaigning, we're bringing jobs. Keep reiterating that. Where are the jobs going? Where are we doing mining? Where's the plans? I know personally that there's plans for these things. And I know guys working in those industries that tell me, yeah.
red tapes being cut, projects are being opened, but I don't think the general population knows that. And I think whether that's the mainstream media, obviously hates this administration as part of the problem, but I think the administration can play some offense a little better on just communications 101. Yeah, exactly.
And cause I'm not sitting here telling you that the, I know that the inactivity and the things that are happening are going to cause necessary short-term pain. But what I am telling you is in my wheelhouse, which is marketing, and back to the buy with their heart, if you want this economy to keep moving, you need this consumer to have an uplifted spirit and a belief in what is happening.
And you got to get them to buy into that and understand what's happening in the short term to assist them in sustaining either through that short pain or to get them off. I think we got a lot of money that's kind of getting a little shrunk back up. Like, oh, I'm putting, you know, getting tight. All this buying gold because, you know, even in my own mind,
I didn't think my crypto would double in a month, but I sure as hell didn't think it'd be down 33% in three months. I bet you didn't, Chris.
Oh, no. I don't think anyone planned for anything that's going on, even in the stock market, guys, with NVIDIA, for example. You know, that big debacle.
Because tell me what's good right now, Chris. Stock market's down.
Playing cards, apparently. Yeah.
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Chapter 5: How can businesses adapt to changing consumer preferences?
He's the, he's a pioneer and an innovator, but I don't know if he's going to lead the rally of the, of the, the sentiment. I think you're going to have to have somebody else doing that. And I think it's going to have to be driven by, okay. The enactment of, of certain things, but both telling the plan, but yeah, We need those interest rates to go down. Yeah.
And if you still have inflation hovering, they're not going to want to do that. But that loosens up money in the market. We talk about that a lot. And, you know, refis and sells. Because that's the biggest transaction most people have. And so it's the moment in time when their most amount of money in one direction or the other goes in and out of hands.
And the residual leftover of money made on a sale, refinanced, is when you get that injected into the overall economy. And... It feels stalled right now as much as anything. I don't personally feel like I see the doom and gloom. It's more this really hard pause that's happening right now. It just feels like if you were walking, we're stuck in mud.
When you're stuck in mud, you take one step forward, you think you're out of the mud, you're kind of still in it. kind of like the crypto you know up 10 one day down 11 the next it's like all right can we get unstuck here a little bit can we get a a little ride of of good news we'll see what happens um I'm going to jump ahead here.
A couple of retail things I don't think are necessarily related to this economy. I think this is more trends overall, Chris. But Forever 21 and GameStop, both closing retail stores. Forever 21 expected to close all U.S. stores. That damn Sheen and Timu. The cheap e-com came and got them. I do see Sheen everywhere.
it's all over the place the ads are everywhere and it's so cheap yeah i mean i've never purchased from it but i know it's very popular with the ladies i've bought a couple things like two years ago maybe and at the time i thought it was pretty decent i mean it's like a 10 t-shirt or something and it was like or a fashionable type t-shirt i was like this is kind of cool but i'm i'm i'm a
I'm a double XL slim fit. So I'm a, I'm a weird, a weird, uh, size fitting and it did. Okay. Not perfect. I have to buy from certain companies to get the fit I want, but I was impressed with the overall quality for like a $10. It was better than I would have thought. So, I mean, it's hard. Like we joked about the malls closing.
It's like, but you know, this generation, my kids still love to go to the mall, the mall rats. I don't, but the thing is, I don't know if anybody's buying at the mall anymore.
You know, like when you and I went to the mall, maybe like 30, 20, me, me 30 years ago, you 20 years ago, like the, the parents were at least buying, you know, and the kids may have just been walking around being mall rats, but someone was buying because e-comm wasn't what it is today. It's like, can the malls, can they survive?
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Chapter 6: What investment trends are emerging in the current market?
Yep.
It says consumers moving to digital game purchases and streaming. Part of a broader retail decline with brands like Joanne, Forever 21, Kohl's, and Macy's also closing stores. GameStop to invest a portion of its cash reserves in Bitcoin.
Probably a smart move.
Yeah. The pivot to Bitcoin is really a defense against irrelevance. It says an odd thing is it's basically saying the strategy isn't retail, but to act as some kind of cryptocurrency investment vehicle.
That's where they're smart because gaming is combining with blockchain and all that. So they might be extremely forward thinking with this and pivoting.
It is interesting because then it becomes, if you're buying the GameStop stock, it's hard to say. Two words, GameStop stock. Why not just buy crypto then? Like, if the whole company is, if they're putting reserves in, their value will be driven by whether Bitcoin grows. It's like, you're kind of, what are you buying into?
They have such a cult following, you know? Yeah. From the Robinhood debacle.
Kind of like a reseller of this, you know? You can buy direct. Do you buy it through GameStop? Who's investing? I guess you still have this side of the business that is retail. So I hope that it pivots to something different. I guess as far as knowing that they won't go bankrupt would keep your interest in the stock, I guess. But at a certain point, you can't spend half your money on Bitcoin.
And then why not just buy Bitcoin versus buying GameStop?
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