Home Business News Retail Sales Up 1.7 Percent in October

Retail Sales Up 1.7 Percent in October

Retail sales up 7.1 percent in October 2021

THE DAILY SCOPE, 11/16/21: No surprise to anyone in the appliance or consumer technology retailing sector, but retail sales were up for the third straight month in October. At 1.7 percent, according to the Labor Department, the rise was the highest since March. This of course is in tandem with the fastest rise in prices in 30 years, but it was still good news for most retail entities from the National Retail Federation to Home Depot, which saw a 9.8 percent jump in sales for Q3 and Walmart, which reported a 9.2 percent increase in comparable sales in Q3 2021 versus 8 percent in Q3 2020. The rollercoaster ride continues.

Some beneficiaries of stock scarcity are products that may have seemed more niche just a couple of years ago. Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has sold 10 million Oculus Quest 2 headsets, which is an impressive number for a metaverse communications and gaming console (also known as a VR headset). The news was shared by Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon at the semiconductor company’s recent investor day (the Oculus Quest 2 uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 chipset). Maybe this VR and metaverse thing is catching on.

In other niche news for the majority of consumers: 8K content; there still isn’t much available, but at least owners of 8K TCL Roku TVs will have an extra portal into the ultra-high-resolution video content of the future with the addition of The Explorers 8K Channel to the Roku entertainment lineup. While some of this 8K content of nature, space, and other National Geographic-worthy videos is already available on The Explorer’s YouTube channel, the dedicated button on TCL Roku TVs makes the 8K option that much more seamless.

Lastly, we can’t wait to try out Denon’s first true wireless earbuds, which just dropped today. The Denon Noise Cancelling Earbuds and the Denon Wireless Earbuds have all the modern features we expect from true wireless earbuds—24 hour battery life with the case, IPX4 ratings, and active noise cancelling (ANC)—but we’re particularly curious about the Denon-specific tuning by Denon Sound Masters.

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