Sales Growth In Electronics Short-Circuits
CONSUMER SPENDING on electronics had ridden out the falling economy fairly well as shoppers trekked to electronics stores for big-screen TVs, DVD players, digital cameras and other gadgets. But then this summer store traffic stopped as if someone had pulled the plug.</br></br>Yet the retailers don't blame the stock market for the problem. Their culprit: car makers.</br></br>No-interest financing and other payment plans are enticing consumers to spend their money on cars instead of electronics or other gadgets. The retailers, such as Best Buy Co. and RadioShack Corp., hope the sales slump is merely temporary, but are bracing for something worse.</br></br>Wendy Smith, a 34-year-old homemaker in Crofton, Md., roughly doubled her monthly car payments to $430 when she bought a Saturn wagon in late June, upgrading from a three-door coupe. But she and her husband decided to wait until next year to replace their six-year-old home computer.</br></br>"The zero-percent financing is what got us there," Ms. Smith said. "We're just cutting back on other purchases."