Consumer Quotations | Page 4

Negative pre-announcements are outpacing positive ones by a three-to-one margin -- and that's very high, ... The big question is whether the market can look through that. We expect consumer confidence will increase and business confidence will start to turn up as well.

Near term, we have seen a softening in our business, coincident with the onset of the war with Iraq. We believe the softening reflects consumer preoccupation with geopolitical events. It is too early, however, to understand the impact these events may have on results for the first quarter." ()

New home sales activity continued to point to strong consumer demand as our new orders increased 24 percent year-over-year. As the industry continues to benefit from favorable market conditions, we continue to strengthen our position in strategic markets through organic and acquisitive growth,

Obviously, the tech wreck has some effect on the consumer because the slowdown has affected (spending). The Fed has less work than we had thought before.

Obviously, the question is what happens in 2006 and some analysts have been hoping that the problems on the consumer credit side will start to flatten out into this year.

Nobody's really made a strong business case for it. It's not easy to integrate, it takes several weeks of IT time, and the question is, what's the quality of the consumer that's going to come through?

Right now, it is very important to increase the consumer base by lowering the cost. Once the industry is mature, we can start to see prices increase.

Revenues and net income for the quarter were negatively impacted primarily by lower motor home deliveries as a result of lower consumer confidence, which in our opinion is due mainly to the increase in fuel prices.

Retail sales picked up more than expected in March, which along with the current strength in the housing market, boosts hopes that the consumer is still alive, if not exactly kicking.

Retail sales numbers were stronger than expected, and that shows that consumer are still spending, and I think that is weighing on the market today and it should. But it's not weighing on the Nasdaq, where you're seeing those really good earnings reports. People really regard tech as the place to make money.

Retail sales have shown tentative signs of a modest recovery from weak levels, but in our view a continuing threat remains the weakness of the labor market ... which may slow the pace of consumer spending.

Right now business stinks, consumer confidence is down, the travel industry is suffering and the economic reports haven't been good and any economic recovery is going to be linked to the war. There haven't been too many first-quarter negative pre-announcements, but I'm still worried about corporate profits in the first quarter.

People will be focusing on the 10 o'clock number. The market has shifted to a fear of recession, as implied by inversion of the yield curve, and consumer confidence could go a long way to restoring a more positive view.

People who've had the propensity to run up consumer debt often don't admit it's a problem. But your net worth -- the difference between your assets and liabilities -- is a key measure of your financial health. If it's getting worse over time, that's a problem.

People want to feel that they matter, that they are not just a digit and a piece of data to the company. If you have an action plan in place, and the consumer feels (the company) really cares, you may cement a relationship.

Philip Morris is one of the most powerful consumer product companies in the world. They have a lot of irons in the fire.

Pessimism about New Zealand's short-term economic prospects and wariness about big spending commitments underlie the fall in consumer confidence.

'Perfect competition' is considered both the ideal and the default state in Economics 101. So-called perfectly competitive markets achieve equilibrium when producer supply meets consumer demand.

Permitting broadband video providers to avoid negotiating thousands of individual franchise agreements will bring more competition to markets faster, resulting in greater consumer choice and lower prices.

Politicians are talking like consumer advocates now that they see consumers' rage over the profiteering built into pump prices. The proof of their sincerity, however, will be whether they carry through with tough legislation.

Personal responsibility is a two-way street: both the consumer and the executives of the industry, both should act in a personally responsible manner.

My sense is, it's actually kind of an interesting dynamic. Microsoft, for reasons that I don't understand - but I welcome - seems to be trying to cram a proprietary Microsoft-only agenda down the throat of the entire consumer electronics industry, and the entire mobile industry, and the entire media industry.

I would expect there will be some coincident change in consumer behavior.

If we get consumer complaints about (gasoline) prices, we'll look at those complaints to find evidence of anticompetitive conduct.

If we don't adapt to a changing market and shifts in consumer demand, then like any business we deserve to suffer the consequences,

If we do have oil prices at this level for another week or so, it's going to make investors reconsider the whole outlook for consumer demand, which of course has been the real fuel for the economy.

If these machines take off, it will give individual people the chance to do this themselves, and we are talking about making a lot of our consumer goods. The effect this has on industry and society could be dramatic.

If they don't deliver, we could see a sharp sell-off in markets and a drop in consumer confidence,

If they feel like the consumer is losing his strength and his spending power in the market, and he's going to be putting more money into savings, that's going to make the market nervous.

If we continue to grow at just 3 percent through the end of the decade, we will be the largest wine consumer nation in the world.

I have full faith in the ability of the American consumer to keep spending.

I have four kids, so if it brings down the cost of traveling, that is a good thing. Let the consumer make the choice.

I don't expect it to be as strong in 1999 as what we saw in 1998, which was an extraordinarily good year. But we do see still further growth from the consumer throughout the course of 1999, particularly in the first half of the year, and February was a good example of that, so we're off to a good start.

I don't know why Gene feels that he's been somewhat overshadowed in the last few years. We think both men deserve credit. They're both towering figures in the history of consumer electronics.

I am excited with the enhanced strategic focus Levenson & Hill brings to the table. Their proven expertise in building brands and delivering messages through an award- winning media platform helps us tremendously. Adding their Hispanic expertise will help catapult us to the next level of strategic focus in reaching this critical consumer segment.

I am excited to announce Opera's sharpened focus on bringing the full Web and open standards support to TVs, consumer electronics and other devices. Advances in broadband networks and device computing power have set the stage for an explosion in the number and variety of places we will see Opera powering Internet access.

I am a product of technology. We now have cameras available to the consumer that were of the same caliber in observatories only 10 years ago, ... Now amateurs can have a camera aperture unheard of 10, 20 years ago. An amateur can now do what scientists were doing five years ago.

IBM's numbers looked very good. Intel's the ugly one because the worry is many investors are expecting higher corporate spending to offset potential weakness in consumer spending.

I believe there is not any big difference between any consumer business, whether it's a bank or insurance or vodka or chocolate, whatever it is.

Certainly the first quarter was better than anybody expected, but we're still looking for a very good year, ... The consumer is king right now and we're going to take advantage of that.

Certainly, the degree of strength through August is not sustainable; we'll get a much weaker number in September. But the third quarter as a whole will still show 5 to 6 percent consumer spending growth, even if we get a negative number in September.

Certainly I think the lower-income consumer is feeling pinched.

Certainly buying a high price athletic shoe is not necessarily a consumer staple.

Car buying is influenced by consumer confidence. And confidence varies month to month but on a trend basis, it is down a lot in the last year, year-and-a-half. And my own view, unless it bounces back and unless history is wrong, we're going to really struggle to get these buyers in next year because they're just not as confident about the future to make a big ticket purchase as they were six months or a year ago.

But, there's a difference between doing it naturally and making a concerted effort to be more consumer oriented. You realize 85 percent of consumer purchases is made by women. If you're going to be consumer driven, the first group you have to identify with is women.

But the real risk that we have to see with the economy is -- does it take another leg down based upon consumer spending?

Businesses are starting to ramp up spending on new equipment and technology and consumer spending looked relatively strong in January, despite predictions that they were tapped out. This may mean fewer job cuts in the months ahead as companies try to meet the steady demand for their products.

Bush's speech and the implications of what he proposed last night gives the market confidence that despite negative economic data like the consumer sentiment numbers this morning the economy is going to be okay.

Business investment is going to be one of the principal drivers of growth in 2006. The consumer will still be there ... (but) certainly won't be as ebullient as the last four years.

Builds are clearly strong in the cell phone, consumer and PC sectors right now. We'll have to see whether the end demand will support it in the coming months.

Based on these trends, it is not too difficult to conclude that the average consumer is probably a bit overextended from a credit standpoint,

Based on the consumer perspective, these companies are allowing them to save a few cents here and there, but to give up quality. That's not very compelling.

Basically what we're trying to do is allow a consumer to build a digital library for the first time.

Basically, the consumer will hang in there. Unless there's some kind of a major problem, the consumer tends to be more passive and will continue to spend if credit is available.

Because of the shift of increased spending by consumers, it's just such a critical industry right now. Christmas is proof of that. Sales of clothing and jewelry fell year over year, but consumer electronics picked up.

Barring an unforeseen shock, we would expect consumer confidence to continue to hover around current levels, indicating continued economic growth.

Because of the wide variety of cultural attitudes worldwide and the consumer concern for privacy, there's going to be a very large demand for products that can help you do this. It's clearly shaping up to be an important market, two or three years out.

China is coming. This is the way the world is going. It's what the consumer wants.

Imagine you're watching '30 Rock' and an ad comes on, but you don't like it. With Hulu Ad Swap, you can actually click the button and trade out the ad. So for the first time ever, a consumer is in control of their ad experience. For us, it's a big win because users are able to take control of what they see.

I find it just odd for all these economists and policy makers to be cheering for all this consumer spending when we're just digging ourselves into a hole. With all the obligations we have ahead, to retirees and to ourselves, we have all the reasons in the world for people to be saving more and be controlling their spending.

I firmly believe consumer spending will stay in positive territory, but I think we will see further signs of consumer fatigue as the year progresses.

Growing fleet sales, increasing competitive pressure in large pickups and escalating risk of weaker consumer spending is likely to hurt pricing and revenue.

Given (Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's) concerns regarding consumer attitudes this development has to be seen as worrisome.

Given fears of weakening consumer electronics sales, ... a strong sales performance is very creditable in these market conditions.

Given the more challenging economic backdrop and widely reported consumer spending fragility this is, in our view, a very strong result.

Given the huge decline in consumer confidence, this (gain in spending) does not seem unreasonably weak, especially with consumers' real after-tax income growth slowing too.

Given the continued improvement in labor and wage conditions of late and the likelihood that that will be sustained, consumer spending is most likely to lead the current economic growth until the present cycle ends.

Given that we're at least a couple of months away from turnaround in the labor market, the fact that consumer confidence is not doing much worse than treading water is actually a good-news story.

Given that the expected pace of the recovery has been scaled down over recent months, sharp declines in stock prices are having a negative effect on consumer and investors confidence,

Given that producer prices have risen more than 2 percent over the past few months, we have to consider that in Japan's corporate environment inflation is already mounting. Producer price inflation is highly likely to translate into consumer price increases.

Given recent macro and consumer data have been positive, Travis is a great recovery story on a 12-month view. It remains one of our top picks for 2006.

Gift receipts guarantee that the consumer is credited the full amount for the item and allow retailers to confirm that the merchandise was purchased in their store.

Gift cards are like proprietary currency issued by a retailer. The intention is to get a potentially new consumer to come in and trade in that currency and try new merchandise. We're seeing retailers across the spectrum doing as much as possible to promote them.

Franchising always has been important, but it's more important now. The market is softening, the consumer is a little more discerning, and unless you have some brand recognition, some franchise power, it's going to be hard to break through the clutter.

Franchising always has been important, but it's more important now, ... The market is softening, the consumer is a little more discerning, and unless you have some brand recognition, some franchise power, it's going to be hard to break through the clutter.

Four years ago, you weren't seeing a wide adoption of wireless data services. And you weren't seeing a wide consumption of new consumer electronics products.

Four years ago, the economy was in a very vulnerable state. Right now, the economy's window of vulnerability has slammed shut. Even though oil prices might have some impact on consumer spending, it's not likely to trigger a new downturn.

Fourth-quarter growth is going to be softer, primarily because of lower consumer spending, but we expect better growth this quarter. A major part of it is the sharp drop in auto sales, and we wouldn't expect to see that again.

Fourth quarter consumer spending is coming in a lot lower. It looks like it's going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 percent -- that is, unless December turns out to be a blockbuster month.

Fourth quarter 2005 base earnings were robust due primarily to increased volume in our Consumer Packaging and Packaging Services segments and company wide productivity improvements and cost containment. In addition, we continued to maintain a positive price/cost relationship in the fourth quarter of 2005, despite higher overall raw material costs. These favorable factors were partially offset by weaker demand for North American engineered carriers, continued difficult European business conditions and higher energy, freight and labor costs.

Friday's same-store sales data are an early indication that shoppers are meeting retailers' expectations, ... The sales growth is in line with the healthy state of the economy and consumer confidence.

From a consumer perspective, the best thing would be one format. I don't know if that will be a reality. Eventually, you will have to follow the logos.

From a consumer perspective it's not an Earth-shattering event. For now, it's just another place where consumers can research stocks.

From a branding perspective, the Super Bowl is a terrific, but very fleeting, opportunity to build consumer awareness in millions of households through a single broadcast.

From our lens, the U.S. housing market has become seriously overextended and a correction looms, posing the largest risk to 2006 consumer spending.

From our consumer survey, we found that consumers plan to spend a little more this year than last, ... That's no surprise because consumers have a little more money in their pockets than they did a year ago.

Gains in employment and the stock market continue to support confidence. Household income is expected to grow at rates that will sustain growth in consumer spending.

Gains in consumer prices will probably accelerate at a gradual pace as wages rise, consumption picks up steam and companies pass more costs to consumers. Investors should anticipate the Bank of Japan won't stop with one rate increase alone.

Future growth still depends critically on developments in consumer spending, and we suspect that this will be relatively muted over the coming months.

Fukui's remarks today fueled speculation that the end of the policy could come as soon as March. With consumer prices projected to keep rising this year, the BOJ may raise rates as soon as October.

Further gains in employment combined with better levels for consumer confidence overall are setting the stage for very solid consumption gains in the first quarter of 2006.

Fun' sounds like crypto for consumer to me.

I don't think a lot of these new products are big bets. Most of them are experiments in an attempt to address the changing consumer dynamics.

If a consumer is paying late, or not making credit card payments, they know that before it hits a credit report. The only thing this might be a safeguard against is some kind of fraud -- and my understanding is that the credit reporting agencies have safeguards.

If a consumer chooses to rely on the 'free' advice of a salesperson, then they should expect to be sold. However, while the mortgage practitioner is providing these advisory services the sales hat is removed. At that point they are acting solely on behalf of the homeowner as a true fiduciary mortgage advisor.

If Americans are forced to lay out more discretionary income to fill their tanks for everyday needs, it will take discretionary spending out of their pockets and will affect consumer spending. We need to act urgently to address the situation.

I don't think what happened here today is going to have too much impact on the Revenue Forecasting Committee, ... I think a lot of the decisions there are going to center around the impact of energy prices on consumer expenditures.

I don't think we want to exempt those requirements from the Consumer Protection Act,

I expect the sell-off in oil prices is a good thing for the stock market. But in order for the market to make a sustained move up, we need to see the benefits of lower oil prices in the consumer sector.

I expect by '07 there will be a significant decline in U.S. consumer spending, and I don't see what will take its place, because it's so important as the motor of the world economy.