NYT: In Shirt-Sleeve Holiday Season, Overcoats Linger on the Racks: First global warming Christmas

[DeepModem Mom]

December 23, 2006
In Shirt-Sleeve Holiday Season, Overcoats Linger on the Racks
By MICHAEL BARBARO

Retailers are calling it the Coat Crisis of 2006, a fashion fiasco measured in racks of unsold fur-lined shearlings at Saks Fifth Avenue and down puffer jackets at Bloomingdale’s.

Balmy temperatures on the East Coast, with average highs this holiday season 15 degrees warmer than last year, have been disastrous for sales of all kinds of cold-weather clothing, from cashmere caps to wool scarves.

What seemed like a meteorological aberration — the coatless, hatless, gloveless morning commute in Washington, New York and Boston — is starting to feel like the new normal, encouraging consumers to splurge on a flat-screen television instead of a peacoat.

The glut of winter wear has sent a chill through the executive suites of major retailers, who count on big profits from coats in the crucial holiday shopping season. They are even starting to grumble about the first “global warming Christmas.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/23/business/23warm.html?ei=5065&en=874c9936c0f905f5&ex=1167454800&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

[aquart]

1. Now will they pay attention?

[silverojo]

7. Maybe they'd pay attention

If they knew people were freezing their asses off in Phoenix...?

[Reverend_Smitty]

2. Although it does figure...

I bought a new winter coat this fall and I've worn it twice so far this year. It has been an unusually warm November and December around here

[lovuian]

3. Its definitely cutting Gas bills up East

Happy Holidays

[No Exit]

8. Oh, NO! But... what about the poor ENERGY COMPANIES' Christmas??

:sarcasm:

[illinoisprogressive]

4. Yes, a real global warming xmas

and that is sad. In November I thought it would be the usual northern Illinois winter with the foot of snow and 10 to 20 degree days. But, now in December, it's been running mostly in the 40s. It was in the 50s on my birthday, Dec. 12. It's been raining for the past day. In Chicago they were way behind at the airport due to fog and rain. this is usually snow.
I think when global warming first hit me hard was seeing pictures of the melting snows of Kilimangaro. I don't know why that was but, it really bothered me. and global warming made it's impact to me.
Why this adminstration denies it is beyond me. Maybe if they accepted it we could do something real, and the industries that would arise from alternative energy, ect. would provide so many needed jobs here. Help our economy rather than threaten it.
Thanks Deepmodemom. See ya in the group pages.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. See ya there!

:hi:

[demnan]

5. Maybe the clothing industry can make a donation this year

Give some coats to the street people who have to be out in the weather all the time. Even when it's 40 it seems cold if you have to be out in it all day.

[gulfcoastliberal]

6. Good one, thanks for posting this particular one!

[Nikia]

10. I think that there have been other warm years

When I was growing up in Ohio, several years it was rainy, not snowing. Some days here and there it was really warm and I didn't wear a coat.
The general trend for global warming is troubling and the weather does seem to have gotten more extreme in the recent past, but this is not the first winter that it has been "warm".
As for me, I wear my long heavy winter coat when it is in the 40's, especially when it is dark out. When I watched the community evening Christmas parade, it was just below freezing and I was freezing standing there despite my coat, heavy gloves, hat, and hood pulled over that. My husband insists on setting the therostat below 70 and my inlaws keep it closer to 60. It being a little warmer than usual does not make me want a sweater any less than I do. The only thing that I haven't broken out is my wind pants to put over my jeans, which I would have done if I had to go on a real walk with my dog later in the evening.
Despite it being warmer than average now here in Wisconsin, it did frost at the end of September and we had to turn the heat on.