More Than Just Data: A Holiday Smorgasbord of Rants, Discussion Topics, and Travel
For those in the US, we are hitting the home stretch before the Thanksgiving holiday. Not sure why, but the time between Halloween and Thanksgiving always seems to fly by, and here we are staring down the barrel of the sprint to the end of the year. Thanksgiving is a unique holiday to the US, which has both good and bad aspects to it.
On the plus side, the holiday is based around a meal, which is not an insignificant amount of work for those hosting, but there is not the added stress level of gift giving attached to it. It is a time for many to get together with family and friends (this can be a plus or a minus), and for many it also turns into a four-day weekend. If you aren’t a Black Friday shopping type of person, the Friday after Thanksgiving always feels like one of the most relaxing days of the year with very little expectation to do anything except eat leftovers.
On the negative side, besides having to decide if you really want to hang out with (insert least favorite relative), there are also the odd work decisions around when the office is going to close: do you take vacation days or do you take the gamble that no real work will be done? On a personal level, the other negative is the meal itself. Can we just admit that turkey is just not all that good?
The traditional sides are lovely, in my opinion. Love stuffing. Cranberry sauce is a personal favorite. Mashed potatoes (sweet or regular) are always great. But turkey is below average at best. In fact, it’s fourth on the list of birds that are enjoyable to eat. Goose and duck are obviously at the top of the list, followed by chicken. And then in a distant fourth… turkey. Yes, there are ways to make it better, but it’s still not great.
Whether you agree or not, I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday - and enjoy the sides!
As always, here are some of the data points that caught our eye this week.
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1)??? 53.89
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When people are asked questions about behavior, they tend to answer as their best selves. Do you eat healthy every day? Of course. How many days a week do you exercise? Oh, at least three to four. Questions around voting behavior are in a similar category. Most people will say they are planning on voting, usually only 5-10% of people will say no, when the percent that don’t turnout is usually at least 33% (if not more). And there are also a fairly large number of voters who say they are undecided, when really they are not all that undecided!
In general, this isn’t lying, but reporting on the truth as a person sees it. Whether it is feeling that you want to portray the ability to be open minded, or that you want to do “more research on the candidate’s positions,” about a quarter of 2024 voters told us that they made up their mind in the last week of the election. Again, this may be true, but we can certainly tell which way most of these voters were leaning. Among this group of “late deciders,” Trump’s support varied at most by 2.5 points from September 1st? to Election Day, while Harris’s average support only moved within a one point range during this same time period.
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2)??? 35.99%
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According to a report on CNBC, retailers have been increasing the rates on their store credit cards just in time for the holiday season. Big Lots had the largest increase (6 points) putting them at the top of the list of the companies with the highest overall rate of 35.99%. Most credit card rates are indexed to the prime rate which is connected to the Federal Reserve’s rate. However, it hasn’t been a 1 to 1 ratio recently with the Fed Rate not changing from September 2023 to September 2024, while credit card rates increased by 1.52 points during this time period, and store credit cards increasing by 2.21 percentage points.
Store credit cards work a little differently since the interest paid is usually split between the retailer and the bank that is backing the card in question. With the assumption that the Fed was going to cut interest rates in September it seems that many retailers increased their rates preemptively most likely to keep their profits higher. Or as the retailers stated to the reporter “We work closely with our banking partner, to ensure APR adjustments are made responsibly and in line with overall industry standards. Our goal remains to empower our customers to purchase what they need and pay over time, ensuring they have access to essential items without financial strain”.
OK we can go with that.
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3)??? 8.3 million
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Sticking with the holiday theme, the current estimates are that 8.3 million people will hop on a plane between yesterday and December 3rd (about half a million more people than last year). If you are one of these people, and you are flying on American Airlines, you might want to think twice before trying to board with an earlier group than what you are assigned.
American has been testing a new system where there is a loud beep from the check in scan for anyone boarding too early. This public shaming was tested out in a few airports and is being rolled out to all non-hub airports this week.
We hope you enjoyed this week’s edition and, as always, we look forward to your thoughts and hearing what stories caught your eye this week.