Throwback Thursday is a regular weekly feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report.
Everybody knows it, but here is a reminder that consumer spending goes in cycles. Ten years ago, we ran a headline on May 5, 2014, that read: “Canadians are ready to start spending again.”
That wasn’t an actual recession we were coming out of, but we were emerging from a slowdown in the pace of growth. After that lull, CIBC, in conjunction with consumer data firm Nielsen, did its renovation intentions survey in the spring of 2014. It showed that average expenditures on home fix-ups were expected to leap a giant 29 percent, to $19,754 during the following 12 months.