Pi-Consulting

Before the economic downturn changed our mood and our purchase habits, the world was steadily increasing its intake of champagne, with global volume shipments rising by over 2% a year for two decades. Between 2002 and 2007, US champagne consumption rose by 3.5% annually, the UK’s by over 4%, and Japan’s by a fizzy 18%, despite the increasing ubiquity of alternatives like Spanish Cava and Australian or American “methode champenoise”. Faced with this increased demand, the main champagne brands have been boosting their prices by as much as 5-9%. Now the big houses are seeing their sales slump, and prices are falling sharply again. Feel like drowning your sorrows in a spot of cut-price bubbly? Churchill is reported to have said once that “In victory you deserve it; in defeat you need it”. Source: The Economist.

Today marks the “official” start of the end of the holiday buying season. The “!2 Days of Christmas” though when was the last time you saw a partridge in a pear tree?? While all statistics won’t be in until at least mid January, the signs in the windows of the high end Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas declare the state of the retail economy:

Instead of waiting for Boxing day, stores are giving an early holiday gift to last minute shoppers trying to clear their inflated inventories. While this comes as a boon for shoppers looking for a deal, it bodes a sense of desperation for those retail companies on the verge of bankruptcy. Pi is the perfect tool for taking a look at retail’s core shoppers then identifying those who are bordering on the edge. Armed with this valuable information, companies are able to tailor an advertising campaign to attract those who might be “lost in translation.”

The staff at Pi is optimistically hoping for a happy and healthy holiday and a better 2009, both economically and altruistically. We think the brave new year starts on 1/20/2009.