As long as people can find the right merchandise, have a job and borrow a little bit, they are going to go shopping. Overall, the holiday season was good. Retailers who had it all nailed down were the winners.
Retailers know that many people will wait until after Christmas for the big purchases. So they don't want to go too far into the holidays with excess inventory that they eventually will heavily discount.
On shopping networks, people model the products, demonstrate how it works and actually make it fun for viewers to associate with what's being shown.
People are still crazy. Sure, gas is expensive, but look on the bright side. People are still crazy and they're going shopping.