How Elections Impact Retail Sales

It's well known that retail sales have regular cycles that can be disrupted by external events, such as federal elections. While anecdotally it's been suggested that uncertainty around elections causes shoppers to close their wallets and purses, there appears very little evidence either domestically or globally to support the claim that an election campaign will negatively impact consumer spending. Retailers are notorious at playing the “blame game” when it comes to their sales and profit reporting.