"While I am no economist, just a work-a-day market researcher, my job is to put variant bits and pieces of data together to predict where the consumer is going. And the data I am seeing says that they will not be going to the store this holiday season at anywhere near the levels they did in the past. But then, miracles can happen."

Pamela N. Danziger, a market researcher, speaker and author focused on the affluent consumers’ behavior and mindset, writing last week on Forbes.com after the Census Bureau reported that retail sales took an unexpected dive in September, declining 0.3 percent from August.