Originally Posted by
cymonger
Brought to you by the same people who told you the dividend will be canceled.
Please treat the scaremongering on this thread with a grain of salt. Comparing American retail to New Zealand retail is just silly. Amazon is utterly ubiquitous in America life, and people now have a completely different way of shopping there.
New Zealand on the other hand has very old-fashioned loyalty to the major brands that is deeply integrated into their spending habits. BILLIONS OF DOLLARS THAT WOULD NORMALLY BE GOING OVERSEAS FOR CHRISTMAS AND BEYOND IS NO LONGER LEAVING THE COUNTRY.
Unemployment is at the lowest level since 2008. Do you really think people are just going to bury this money under the mattress? Put it in their retirement plan? Give me a break. A recent study showed 40% of Kiwis have less than $1000 saved for retirement. Why do you think that is? People love to spend their money. Much like people get "hangry" (hungry plus angry), people are dying for some retail therapy right now.
I don't love the Warehouse as a long-term hold. As others have pointed out, New Zealand will eventually embrace a digital model like Amazon which made companies like Sears in the states obsolete. We're nowhere near that yet though.
This is "war is over" times. People in Auckland are already largely disregarding Covid protocols. Sure there will be plenty of ongoing challenges with Covid, but people want to live their lives and live with Covid like they are in virtually every other country of the world right now.
Personally, I'm betting on it. Please remember a lot of people on here placed their bets that the dividend wasn't happening.
They were wrong. Dead wrong.