The National Retail Federation and others have called on President Obama to include a sales tax holiday or some other mechanism to help jump start retail sales. It may turn out that Mr. Obama's administration will not need to do anything special to help retail since he and his family have managed to drive the sales of a whole host of products, including BlackBerry cell phones, J. Crew's kids clothing and chocolates made in Seattle.
An article in the New York Daily News, reported that after seeing the attractive outfits worn by the Obama children at the inauguration ceremony, there was a rush to order similar outfits from the J. Crew site. The traffic was eventually overwhelming for the site and it went offline for about 30-minutes.
Michelle Obama's choice of clothing has also drawn attention and generated interest in the work of fashion designers such as Mario Pinto, Narciso Rodriguez, Isabel Toledo and Jason Wu.
Discussion Questions: How will the Obama family affect what consumers buy from retail stores and websites in the near future? When will the demand for Obama merchandise and other products used by the first family begin to tail off?
- Obama merchandise: Bright spot for stores - CNNMoney.com
- First daughters Malia and Sasha Obama wear J. Crew; retailer's Web site goes down - New York Daily News
- Michelle Obama carries U.S. designers into spotlight - Reuters
- Obama's favorite gadget a hot seller - Sun Journal
- Fran's Chocolates scrambles to meet salted-caramel demand as fan Barack Obama is inaugurated - The Seattle Times
- Obama soda leads 7-Eleven into new era - The Southtown Star