It’s hardly cause for celebration, but after the first week of profit results from our notoriously fickle cyclical industry sectors including media, retail and building materials, the overarching takeaway is that things aren’t pretty, but it could have been a lot uglier.
Yet despite JB’s marketing pitch that its tech products are must-haves rather than discretionary products, the numbers say otherwise. Most people can put off upgrading their Apple product or tricked out TVs while they deal with higher interest rates.Myer, however, is a classic discretionary retailer that provides clear visibility into how Australians are spending during this downturn.
This company is a member of a newer style of retail disruptors with an online-only presence and a value-based offer that appeals to cash-strapped consumers, who can’t splurge but are looking to incrementally improve their homes. As such, it is something of an outlier in the discretionary retail sector.The official stats and James Hardie’s latest result say no.