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The clothing/fashion industry has always been highly dependent on people's tastes and preferences. This experimental store run by H&M intends to serve the purpose of finding where the trend is going and better adjust their fashion design, which implies an understanding of tastes as an important shifter of demand.

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H&M has a concept store in Sweden that offers a curated selection of clothing and accessories.

This store is the antithesis of H&M's standard locations. It speaks to the direction in which brick-and-mortar shopping is headed, casting doubt on whether H&M in its original form is still viable in the current market.

We took a look around the store via Instagram.

H&M's vision for the store of the future is minimalist, curated, and pricey - everything that the original H&M is not.

Its new concept store, which was unveiled in November 2017 in one of its existing locations in Sweden, is the antithesis of a typical H&M store. Shoppers come in to shop its limited collection of clothing, have a coffee in the store, or even take a yoga class.

While this is currently the only H&M store of its kind, it's telling of where the company believes retail is headed. It's a very different direction from what we see in the rest of its often chaotic and cluttered fleet of stores.

Once the king of fast fashion, H&M has stumbled in recent years and lost out to more nimble online players such as ASOS and Boohoo, which have cut down supply-chain times and swooped in to poach customers. As a result, sales growth at H&M has slowed. It has also battled with a mountain of unsold inventory and seen its stock price slump.

One of H&M's key areas of success has been its sister brands, specifically Cos, which is the second-largest brand in the company's portfolio and is focused on better-quality but higher-cost clothing.

The overlap between Cos and its concept store is far greater than at its own H&M brand, signifying that Cos may have become the model for H&M stores of the future.

Take a look around H&M's concept store below:

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H&M has a futuristic test store that's more expensive than anything else we've seen from the brand

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H&M has a concept store in Sweden that offers a curated selection of clothing and accessories. This store is the antithesis of H&M's standard locations. It speaks to the direction in which brick-and-mortar shopping is headed, casting doubt on whether H&M in its original form is still viable in the current market.

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As the median house hold income continues to rise steadily, demand for normal goods would shift outwards while demand for inferior goods would shift inward.

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The Census Bureau released its annual report today on " Income and Poverty in the United States: 2017" with lots of new, updated data on household and family incomes, and household demographics through 2017. Below are four charts with commentary based on the new Census data on household income through 2017. Shortly I'll post my annual analysis "Explaining US income inequality by household demographics," here's my post from a year ago for 2016 data.

1. Median and Average Household Income, and Average Household Size. The chart above shows: a) average annual household income in 2017 dollars (light blue line), b) median household income in 2017 dollars (dark blue line), and c) average household size (brown line), all from 1975 to 2017.

Median household income last year of $61,372 was an increase of 1.8% from 2016 and brought median income for US households to the highest level ever, above the previous record level last year of $60,309. The income gain last year was the fifth consecutive annual increase in real median household income starting in 2013, following five consecutive declines from 2008 to 2012 due to the effects of the Great Recession. The last period of four consecutive gains in annual median household income was during the late 1990s at the end of the longest economic expansion in US history (120 months from March 1991 to March 2001). Although it doesn't get as much attention as median income because it's influenced by outliers on the high-end, average household income also increased to a new record level last year of $86,220, which was an increase of 1.5% from 2016 and the seventh consecutive annual increase starting in 2011.

Also notable is the fact that average size of US households has been falling steadily for the last 70 years (or more) and was 2.54 persons in 2017, up slightly from 2.53 persons in 2016, a record low. The 2.54 average members per household last year was down by 0.50 persons from the 2.94 average in 1975 and down by more than one full person since the 3.56 average persons per household in 1947 (not shown above).

Income adjusted for household size is calculated and presented below, but it should be obvious that a comparison of median household incomes over time is distorted because the average size of US households has been declining. It's also important to note that the typical US household in 2017 had an annual income of $61,372, which is $12,464 more (in 2017 dollars) than the typical household in 1975 ($48,908) - that's more than $1,000 in additional inflation-adjusted income every month for the typical household today compared to 42 years ago. And when you consider that the cost of most manufactured goods and many services including clothing, footwear, appliances, electronics, TVs, household furnishings, sporting goods, airline travel, telephone service, computers and automobiles have become cheaper and more affordable over time (relative to increases in overall consumer prices and incomes), along with the increased availability of services that are now almost free (GPS, music, cameras, Craigslist listings, Wikipedia information, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.), that $12,000 annual increase in real household income since 1975 translates into a much higher standard of living for the average American today compared to a generation ago.

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2. Average and Median Income per Household Member. The chart above displays average and median household income adjusted for household size. Both the average and median income per person in the US reached all-time highs in 2017 of nearly $34,000 (in 2017 dollars) for average income per person, and $24,160 for median income per household member last year. Compared to 1975, the average household income per US household member has increased by 74% from $19,500 to $34,000, while the median household income per person has increased by 45% from $16,600 to $24,160. Without adjusting for household size, average household income increased by only 50% since 1975 (vs. 74% adjusted for average household size) and median income increased only 25% (vs. 45%), demonstrating the importance of adjusting for changes in household size when comparing median household incomes over time.

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3. Married 2-Earner Households. The chart above shows annual median income from 1949 to 2017 for families headed by married couples with both spouses working. Income for a typical family in this group reached an all-time high last year of $111,000, and the median family income for this group of Americans has been above $100,000 (in 2017 dollars) for the last five years. Since 1949, the real inflation-adjusted median income for married couples with two earners has more than tripled (from $34,800) and since 1963 has more than doubled (from $54,700).

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4. What Rising Income Inequality? We hear all the time about "rising income inequality" in America (there are more than 100,000 Google search results for that term), about "the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer," the "stagnant or disappearing middle class," all of the recent income gains going to the rich," the lack of income mobility and other narratives of pessimism. In a December 2013 speech, President Obama described rising income inequality as the " defining challenge of our time " and promised that for the rest of his presidency, he and his administration would focus all of their efforts to stop the increase in income inequality. And yet, the data in today's Census Bureau tell a much different story.

a. The top chart above shows the shares of total income earned by the top 20% and top 5% of US households from 1993 to 2017. In 1993, 48.9% of total income went to the top quintile of US households, and 24 years later in 2017, the share of income going to the top 20% of households has increased to only 51.5%. Likewise, in 1993 the share of total income going to the top 5% of US households was 21.0%, and that share had increased to only 22.3% last year. Interestingly, the 22.3% share of income earned by the top 5% of households last year was lower than the share that group earned in 2016 (22.6%) and 2001 (22.4%), and the same as in 2006, 2011 and 2012. Over the last two decades, the income shares of the top 20% and top 5% have been remarkably stable at about 49-51.5% and 21-22.6% respectively, and there has been no statistical evidence of significant "rising income inequality" according to these measures.

b. The bottom chart above shows the annual Gini index of income inequality (a statistical measure of income dispersion that quantifies income inequality on a range from 0.0 for complete equality to 1.0 for complete inequality) for US households from 1993 to 2017. Like the first two measures above, the Gini index measure of income dispersion reveals that there has been no significant trend of "rising income inequality" for US household incomes over the last quarter century. The Gini index in 1993 was 0.454 and last year it was 0.482, the same as in 2013, and this statistical measure of income inequality has also shown remarkable stability for the last several decades in a narrow range between 0.46 and 0.48.

Whether we look at Census Bureau data on the share of total income going to the top fifth and top 5% of American households, or Census data on Gini coefficients for US household income, there is very little statistical support for the commonly held view by the public, academia, and the mainstream media that income inequality has been rising in recent years or decades. A more accurate description of income inequality over the last several decades in the US would be to say that it has been remarkably stable for the last 25 years starting about 1993.

So why are we having a national debate about solutions to the "non-problem" of rising income inequality that doesn't even exist according to several standard Census Bureau measures? Maybe it's another example of what H.L. Mencken called an " imaginary hobgoblin ":

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

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5. The Disappearing Middle Class? The chart above represents what might be one of the most important findings in the new Census data and confirms a trend I've highlighted many times before. Yes, the "middle-class is disappearing" as we hear all the time, but it's because middle-income households in the US are gradually moving up to higher income groups, and not down into lower-income groups. In 1967, only 9% of US households (only 1 in 11) earned $100,000 or more (in 2017 dollars). Last year, more than 1 in 4 US households (29.2%) were in that high-income category, a new record high. In other words, over the last half-century, the share of US households earning incomes of $100,000 or more (in 2017 dollars) has more than tripled! At the same time, the share of middle-income households earning $35,000 to $100,000 (in 2017 dollars) has decreased over time, from more than half of US households in 1967 (53.8%) to less than half (only 41.3%) in 2017. Likewise, the share of low-income households earning $35,000 or less (in 2017 dollars) has decreased from more than one-third of households in 1967 (37.2%) to below one-third of US households last year (29.5%), a near-record low.

Bottom Line: Here are some of the key takeaways from the new Census report on US incomes through 2017:

The 1.8% gain in real median US household income last year brought median income to more than $61,000, the highest level ever recorded.

The income gain in 2017 was the fifth annual increase and the first period of five consecutive increases in median household income since the late 1990s.

Compared to 1975, the typical US household today has $12,464 more annual income (in 2017 dollars) or more than $1,000 more per month in real, inflation-adjusted dollars to spend on goods and services, many of which have become much more affordable today than in the 1970s (or weren't even available then).

Adjusted for household size, which has been falling over time, real median household income per household member last year of $24,160 (in 2017 dollars) was the highest in history.

Real median income for married couples with both spouses working reached a new all-time record high last year of $111,000 and has more than doubled from $54,700 in 1963.

By three different measures - income shares of the top 5% and 20% and the Gini coefficient - there is no evidence of a significant rise in income inequality over the last 25 years; all three measures have been remarkably flat for more than two decades.

The share of US households with incomes of $100,000 or more (in 2017 dollars) reached a new record high of 29.2% last year, which is more than triple the share of households in 1967 with that level of income. At the same time, the share of US low-income households (real incomes of $35,000 or below) fell to a near-record low of 29.5%.

America's middle-class is disappearing but into higher, not lower, income categories over time.

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Census data released today show continued gains for middle-class Americans and little evidence of rising income inequality - AEI

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The Census Bureau released its annual report today on " Income and Poverty in the United States: 2017" with lots of new, updated data on household and family incomes, and household demographics through 2017. Below are four charts with commentary based on the new Census data on household income through 2017.

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The recent drop in the price of oil may result in a increase in the demand for cars that run on fuel and a decreases in the demand for electric cars.

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...as CBN sees oil price not falling below $80/b this year

By Ediri Ejoh

O il price fell yesterday by 65 cents to $83.51 per barrel against $86.74 (four-year high) recorded at the close of the market last week.

This came as the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, said that it does not see the price of oil falling below $80 a barrel this year and expected to keep monetary policy tight until inflation returns to its target.

On the fall of crude price, oil watchers likened the cause on expectations that some Iranian oil exports will keep flowing despite U.S. sanctions, easing a strain on supplies.

U.S. sanctions will target Iran's crude oil exports from Nov. 4, and Washington has been putting pressure on governments and companies worldwide to cut their imports to zero.

"This is one of the single biggest supportive factors for crude," said analysts at JBC Energy of the U.S. re-imposition of Iran sanctions.

"Having said that, it may well be that we are already in the most supportive phase coming from this change and the effect will soon begin to ease."

Oil also dropped as investors focused on rising output from other producers, such as top exporter Saudi Arabia, to compensate for lower Iranian supplies.

Saudi Arabia said last week it plans to raise production in November from October output of 10.7 million barrels per day (bpd), indicating Riyadh will be boosting its supply to the highest ever level.

"Chatter that Saudi Arabia has replaced all of Iran's lost oil" is weighing on prices, said Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia-Pacific at futures brokerage Oanda in Singapore.

Concern that the U.S.-Chinese trade war could slow down economic growth and hit oil demand also weighed on the market, traders in Asia said. Chinese equities fell sharply on Monday.

Meanwhile, Governor, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, explained that price of crude will not fall below $80 a barrel this year.

Making this projection in an interview with Reuters at the World Bank Conference in London, he stated that so long as U.S. sanctions take effect on Iran in November, "I do not expect the price to close less than $80 this year."

On Nigeria's interest rate, he said, "The current state of tightening will continue until at least we see inflation attaining those levels that have been set as a target."

He noted that Nigeria would continue to intervene to support its exchange rate, although he noted the pressure on the bank and the country's currency reserves had been less than those on other emerging markets.

"We will continue to intervene," he said. "We believe in a stable exchange rate regime."

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Oil price drops to $83 on signs of Iran's exports - Vanguard News

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as CBN sees oil price not falling below $80/b this year By Ediri Ejoh O il price fell yesterday by 65 cents to $83.51 per barrel against $86.74 (four-year high) recorded at the close of the market last week.

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People can expect an increase in price in the imported Chinese goods on which a higher tariff will be applied. So demand may temporarily shift outwards due to a future expected rise in price.

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Few stores, and shoppers, are as affected by the Trump administration's escalating trade fight with China as Dollar Tree and its massive base of low- and middle-income customers.

Late last month, President Donald Trump slapped a 10 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. Unlike previous rounds of tariffs on Chinese products, which largely taxed industrial goods, the new duty touches everyday consumer items. That's the sweet spot for the Chesapeake, Virginia-based Dollar Tree, which owns 15,000 Dollar Tree and Family Dollar discount variety stores across the U.S., and may soon need to pull items off shelves, or take other steps to offset the higher costs. The tariff may also hit communities if the company pulls back on store openings and hiring.

Many of its inexpensive products can be made only in China, company executives said. Dollar Tree imports about 42 percent of its products, while Family Dollar imports about 23 percent, according to estimates from the Telsey Advisory Group, a research and consulting firm. Most of the shipments are from China, the firm said.

The tariff will hit about 10 percent of Dollar Tree's merchandise, or several thousand items, including household, health and beauty products, food, hardware and electronics, the company's chief executive, Gary Philbin, said at a hearing before the U.S. trade representative in late August.

The higher tariff is forcing Dollar Tree to pay more to import the goods. It can eat the higher costs, pass them on to customers or find a way to offset them.

While most discount store shoppers could feel the pinch, customers of the so-called dollar stores are especially budget-constrained and would be hurt by what is essentially a new tax on their purchases. And higher costs lay ahead: The new tariff is set to rise to 25 percent on Jan. 1.

Philbin said in a letter to the U.S. trade representative last month that his company simply can't raise prices at Dollar Tree, which sells everything for $1. At Family Dollar, the company has a little more wiggle room, with about 40 percent of items priced at $1 and the vast majority costing $3 or less.

As a result, if the U.S.-China standoff isn't resolved soon, customers are likely to see slightly less merchandise in stores, smaller packages at the same price for certain items and perhaps some higher prices at Family Dollar, Philbin said. Dollar Tree also may pull back investment and hiring in communities if its profits fall, he said.

More than 60 percent of Dollar Tree's shoppers - at both the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar chains - have less than $40,000 in annual household income, Philbin wrote in his letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. Half of that group earns less than $20,000 a year.

"They truly are among the most vulnerable U.S. consumers," Philbin said in the letter. At the hearing, he said they depended on the stores' offerings "to make ends meet."

Among the products affected by the tariffs are: vegetables, perfume, shampoo, makeup, dog leashes, handbags, paper, bed sheets, dishes, cups, carpet, batteries, clothing, hats, tweezers, screwdrivers and lamps.

"The U.S. consumer will suffer," Philbin said at the hearing.

Company officials would not comment for this article.

Outside a Dollar Tree in Annandale, Virginia, last week, Edgar Escobar, 48, said he shops at one of the chain's area stores about twice a week, buying staples such as bread, soda and candy, as well as plastic containers and mirrors.

"I like it because everything is cheap," said Escobar, a house painter. If the store carries fewer items because of the tariffs, he said he would clip supermarket coupons but still couldn't match the deals he gets at Dollar Tree.

Joseph Feldman, analyst at Telsey Advisory Group, believes Dollar Tree will likely rely mostly on reducing package sizes, a tactic shoppers will notice. "The consumer is really smart," he said.

The current 10 percent tariff likely will have some effect on the stores in coming weeks, Feldman said. But he added, "You can probably figure out a way to deal with it," in part by absorbing some of the added cost and coping with narrower profit margins.

Philbin told analysts in August that the company "can also attempt to negotiate price concessions" with suppliers.

But the 25 percent duty in January will take a bigger toll, Feldman said.

Philbin said the tax will make Dollar Tree's stores less competitive with higher-priced discount retailers.

"This could result in slower growth," he said at the hearing. The tariffs, if sustained, would shave company revenue by tens of millions of dollars a year, he estimated.

That, he said, could slow new store openings, limit the need for new distribution centers and curtail hiring.

The company opened 603 stores last year and has been adding more than 6,000 retail associates a year. The tariffs "put these new jobs and possibly existing jobs at risk," Philbin said. Dollar Tree employs about 175,000 workers.

The duties also threaten Dollar Tree's plans to open a new distribution center every 12 to 18 months, he said. Each generates about $100 million in investment and about 400 new jobs.

Philbin said many of its products can be sourced only from China because they're crafted or packaged by hand, incurring labor costs that would be exorbitant in the U.S. Also, he said, the U.S. lacks some injection plastic molding techniques and sufficient production and distribution capacity for many products.

One factory in China has expanded to more than 400 injection molding machines to meet Dollar Tree's demand, Philbin said.

"That type of production capacity simply does not exist anywhere outside of China," he wrote in the letter.

The company, he said, is exploring production in foreign countries outside China. But, he said at the hearing, "We believe it will take two to four years to improve their supply chains."

In Annandale, Kay Durra, 41, was at the second of three Dollar Tree outlets she was hitting that night as she tried to cobble together enough feather boas for a Halloween flamingo costume.

She typically buys party decorations and craft items at the shop that cost a third as much as they do at traditional stores, as well as snacks. "They have pretty interesting stuff you can't get anywhere else," said Durra, a retirement administrator.

"It would be pretty disappointing if they didn't have the variety of things or the quantity (in a package) that you'd expect," she said. You'd have to go to (big-box stores) and pay more."

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Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/10/08/china-tariffs-dollar-tree-shoppers-hurt-trump-imports/1498752002/

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Dollar Tree, and its customers, feel pain of tariffs on Chinese imports

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CLOSE Few stores, and shoppers, are as affected by the Trump administration's escalating trade fight with China as Dollar Tree and its massive base of low- and middle-income customers. Late last month, President Donald Trump slapped a 10 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports.

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Market Size

Expectations

Related Goods

Income Changes

Tastes & Preferences

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The news article blow reports the expected growth in market size for the global human and animal vaccine adjuvants market, which would shift the demand outwards.

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The global human and animal vaccine adjuvants market size is expected to reach at USD 1.07 billion by 2025

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LONDON, Oct. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Human And Animal Vaccine Adjuvants Market Size And Forecast, By Product Type, By Application, By Route Of Administration,...