SOFT OPENING

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE A KEY FACTOR IN RECOVERY

- DAMIEN MARTIN

As states reopened their economies in various phases throughout May and June, it quickly became clear that simply being open is not enough to get firing on all cylinders again. First, there are safety regulations limiting how many patrons a business can serve at a time. Just as important is consumer confidence. If shoppers don’t feel safe visiting a business, they’re not going to, and there’s no forcing them. Some services requiring intimate personal contact have an even harder time with this. Just because someone can get a massage or a tattoo doesn’t mean they’re comfortable with it.

COMFORT LEVELS

Consumer confidence was higher than expected in May, hitting 86.6 on The Conference Board scale, up from 85.7 in April and more than 4 points higher than a Dow Jones poll of economists predicted. “Following two months of rapid decline, the free-fall in confidence stopped in May,” Lynn Franco, senior director of economic indicators at The Conference Board, said in a statement. “Short-term expectations moderately increased as the gradual re-opening of the economy helped improve consumers’ spirits.”