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Britt Beemer America's Research Group articles most recent first Furniture Buying Index Falls in May Consumers Shift Spending To What They Need, Not What They Want Furniture Buying Index Drops Two More Points; Wal Mart Expands Home Furnishings In Midst of Sluggish Furniture Sales Beemer - Many Retailers In Free Fall After Disappointing December August Retail Sales Surge; Home Furnishings, Accessories Lag behind Expert Predicts Back-to-School Spending to Grow Meagerly in 2007 Retail Shopping Takes A Holiday Early Indications Are For A Frugal First Quarter Independent Retailers Outperformed Chain Stores In December Britt Beemer Lowers Forecast of Christmas Retail Sales to 2.7% Rise Over Last Year; Lack of “Must Have” Item to Blame Want To Drive Shoppers Away? Decorate Stores Less and Don’t Say “Merry Christmas” 2006 Q4 Shoppers Study Revealing; Cyber Monday a Hoax, Biggest Retail Push Will Be After December 15th 10 Trends For Retail Christmas 2006 Survey; Parents Cite High Gas Prices As Primary Reason For Limiting Back To School Spending Families Reduce Summer Spending As Gas Prices Rise Or Was It? New Survey Casts Doubt On Rosie Black Friday Survey; Bargain Hunters Drive June Results Top 10 Retail Stores For April; Discounts Drive Traffic Survey Says Americans Extremely Optimist About The Future 37% Of Shoppers Noticed Less Christmas Decorations In Stores; Spent Less As A Result America’s Research Group; Shopping Levels Increasing But Still Expected To Be Lackluster 3.2% Over 2003 Lack Of Hot New Product Weighing Heavily On Holiday Shopping Survey Of Thanksgiving Weekend Shoppers; "We're Not Impressed"; 45% Say Discounts Not Enough Britt Beemer’s Christmas 2004 Sales Forecast; 19% Will Spend More Since Bush Was Reelected Seven Things Your Store’s Appearance Tells Your Customers Britt Beemer Cites Convenience As Key To Drawing Male Shoppers Beemer Lowers Christmas Sales Projection to 4.2% Increase This Year Compared To His Earlier 4.8% Sales Increase survey 31.0% of Americans Who Planned to Shop Thanksgiving Weekend Did Not Get Around To It Study Shows 11% Increase In Consumer Spending For Appliance, Electronics, Computers Britt Beemer Predicts 4.8% Increase In Holiday Spending survey Furniture Leads All Categories For Shopping Levels Over Labor Day Weekend survey Consumers Plan to Spend 10% More on Back to School Furniture Buying Index Up One Point Buying furniture is on consumers’ minds, but not a top priority Shopping Is Not a Big Priority for Many Americans The Incredible Shrinking Customer Base How Loyal is Your Customer? The Loyalty American Consumers Have Towards Brand Products

The all-important back-to-school season is just around the corner. To stop the bleeding and lure customers back retailers will have to rearrange their marketing strategies and offer consumers real discounts on quality merchandise.

American consumers have abandoned retail stores and are staying away in droves, according to the latest Consumer Mind Reader™ national survey by America's Research Group.

Of the 26 retail categories America’s Research Group surveys, more than half saw fewer customers in June than they did last year.

The number of shoppers frequenting national department stores, membership warehouse clubs and music stores reached their lowest point in more than two years. Others suffering deep drops were specialty retailers of bed and bath products, home accessories, musical instruments, toys and jewelry.

Even catalog shopping took a nosedive, down from 11.5 percent of the shopping population last year to less than five percent in this survey.

Internet shopping, however, was one of the few categories which actually showed an increase. More than three in 10 shoppers nationwide made purchases online during June, up from 27.4 percent last year. Others bucking the downward trend with modest increases in store traffic were discount and major department stores, outlet malls and factory outlets, drug stores and sporting goods retailers.

Clearly the vast majority of retailers have significant ground to make up to meet their sales projections for the year. The all-important back-to-school season is just around the corner. To stop the bleeding and lure customers back retailers will have to rearrange their marketing strategies and offer consumers real discounts on quality merchandise.

The Consumer Mind Reader survey is conducted six times a year by America’s Research Group. The survey interviews 1,000 consumers across the country about their shopping habits during the past month. The telephone interviews were conducted July 5-8, 2007.