Still sounding like a 1.5% type economy/Global PMI's roll in, UK mentions 'spiking' shipping costs

Hearing from Darden, Kroger, Winnebago and Carmax, two of course catering to services and two to goods, the consumer continues to be very 'choiceful' and the spending hesitancy remains. Accenture tells us that outside of AI, tech spend is mixed. I'll say again, this very much feels like a 1.5% economy and not one growing at 3%. 

From Darden Restaurants, owner of everything from Olive Garden to the Yard House, Seasons 52, Capital Grille, LongHorn Steakhouse and Ruth's Chris, among others:

"I'm proud of our ability to stay disciplined and control what we can control. This continued focus enabled us to have a strong year in what became an increasingly weaker consumer environment, especially for consumers below the median household income."

They saw labor cost inflation at about 4%. Also, "Seafood deflation this quarter helped partially offset mid single digit beef and produce inflation." Overall they expect commodities inflation of approximately 2% in their fiscal 2025 and believe the labor inflation will stay at 4%. And they see comp growth of 1-2%. 

In terms of pricing for the consumer, "so in that 2.5% to 3% range probably."

On the consumer, "Consumers are generally concerned about inflation, and they're becoming more concerned about the job market. And what we're seeing are some behavior shifts that we had already started to see. So for Q4, transactions from households with incomes below the median were lower than last years. And that's more pronounced with consumers below $50,000 in income. And these impacts were even greater in our fine dining brands, so that's why you saw Fine Dining had a little bit more negative comp than others."

From Kroger: