Consumer confidence has been taxed

Summary

Marketplace Episode Summary: "Consumer Confidence Has Been Taxed"

Release Date: December 23, 2024
Host: Amy Scott (in for Kai Ryssdal)
Podcast: Marketplace by American Public Media

In this episode of Marketplace, host Amy Scott delves into several pressing economic and social issues affecting the United States as the year draws to a close. The discussions span federal trade investigations, disaster recovery aid, declining consumer confidence, legislative developments, the resurgence of volunteering, retail challenges during the holiday season, and updates on gas prices.

---

1. Federal Investigation into Chinese Trade Practices on Legacy Chips

The Biden administration has launched an investigation into alleged unfair trade practices by China concerning legacy computer chips—those used in everyday products like cars, household appliances, and medical devices—not just the high-end chips powering artificial intelligence.

Sabri Benishore introduces the segment, highlighting the broader impact of China's investments:

"A new front has opened up in the chip wars... why China's investment in these so-called legacy chips has US officials concerned."
(00:02)

Chris Miller, a professor at Tufts and author of Chip War, explains China's extensive subsidies:

"The Chinese government has given out subsidized loans and grants, even buying up shares of Chinese chip makers."
(01:33)

Stacey Razgon, managing director at Bernstein Research, cautions that low prices alone may not pose a significant threat:

"Low prices might not be enough for Chinese production to be a global threat."
(02:05)

However, Jason Oxman, president of the ITI, warns of potential tariffs affecting a wide range of consumer goods:

"Tariffs on chips... on anything that has Chinese chips in it, from refrigerators to cars, which the US does import a lot of."
(02:24)

China's Ministry of Commerce dismissed the investigation as protectionist, pointing to American subsidies for U.S.-based chip manufacturing:

"The investigation was protectionist... it would take all necessary measures to protect its interests."
(02:50)

---

2. Disaster Recovery Aid and Small Business Resilience

The recently signed appropriations bill includes $100 billion in disaster aid to support communities recovering from recent storms. This relief is particularly vital for small business owners like Jesse Dean, whose Asheville Tea Company was devastated by Hurricane Helene.

Jesse Dean shares his recovery journey:

"We've lost well over half of the revenue that we would have typically seen this time of year."
(05:42)

Despite the challenges, Dean reports positive signs from pre-sales:

"We launched pre-sales of our tea just before Thanksgiving and we sold out of our holiday trio of teas, which is amazing."
(04:58)

He also discusses the personal and financial strain of rebuilding:

"I've been working so hard and so has our team... I am a little exhausted to be fair. But I do still feel really grateful."
(08:13)

---

3. Decline in Consumer Confidence

Contrary to expectations, the Consumer Confidence Index fell by approximately 7% in December, marking a significant drop after months of improvement.

Dana M. Peterson, chief economist with the Conference Board, provides insights:

"Consumers aren't necessarily feeling bad about the economy. What's important here is they feel worse than last month."
(10:55)

Kayla Brun, lead economist at Morning Consult, notes the shift in consumer concerns:

"In December, inflation actually beat out politics... consumers are expecting that the impact on their costs will be higher."
(11:27)

Michael Green, chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management, highlights that older consumers are increasingly pessimistic:

"The older you were, the less confident you became in this environment."
(12:10)

This trend is concerning as the typically more financially stable older demographic is showing reduced confidence, potentially impacting overall economic momentum.

---

4. Bipartisan Passage of the Social Security Fairness Act

In a rare display of bipartisan cooperation, the Senate passed the Social Security Fairness Act with a vote of 76 to 20. This legislation aims to restore full Social Security benefits to approximately 3 million former state and local government workers who previously received reduced benefits due to dual pensions.

Daniel Horowitz from the American Federation of Government Employees explains:

"Congress has finally righted this, and people will get their full Social Security benefit."
(16:13)

However, this fix comes at a significant cost:

"About $200 billion did not pay for it, leading to the program becoming insolvent even sooner than it already is going to be about six months sooner."
(17:37)

Maya McGinnis at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget warns of the financial strain:

"Congress created a very expensive benefit."
(17:24)

The act's passage addresses long-standing inequities but introduces new challenges for the sustainability of the Social Security system.

---

5. Resurgence of Volunteering and Its Economic Impact

Amid the holiday season, volunteering has seen a robust comeback, contributing nearly $168 billion to the economy last year. Over 75 million Americans volunteered with nonprofits, up from just over 60 million in 2021.

Thomas Chen, a volunteer with City Harvest in Brooklyn, emphasizes the critical role of volunteers:

"We could not handle the amount of distribution that we do without our volunteers. They're really, really essential to the work that we do."
(19:57)

Danielle Allen, a new volunteer, shares her motivation:

"I was feeling a real drive to connect with my community and to help out in a tangible way."
(22:07)

Michael D. Smith, CEO of AmeriCorps, attributes the increase to the community's heightened needs post-pandemic:

"There's an increase in demand for their services."
(20:42)

Volunteering not only bolsters nonprofit operations but also fosters community resilience and economic stability.

---

6. Retail Insights from Ashley Morkin of Unglued

As the holiday season winds down, Ashley Morkin, owner of Unglued in Fargo, North Dakota, discusses the challenges and adaptions of small retailers.

Facing initial sales drops, Morkin reports a partial recovery:

"We were down about 20% for the beginning of the holiday season and now we're down only about 8%."
(23:41)

She observes changes in consumer behavior, with customers prioritizing gifts over personal purchases:

"They still chose a lot of things for their gift list, but they did set aside the few things that they were going to get for themselves that were more expensive."
(23:41)

Morkin credits the support from local makers and flexible stocking strategies:

"We're able to produce that still features ingredients from our local farmers... last-minute stocking isn't the hardest for us as a local handmade shop."
(23:41)

Her experience underscores the importance of community support and adaptability for small businesses during economically uncertain times.

---

7. Gas Prices Update for Holiday Travelers

For those embarking on holiday travels, the national average gas price is currently estimated at $3.01 per gallon, marking a slight increase from last week but still 9 cents lower than the previous year. Notably, 32 states maintain gas prices below $3 per gallon, providing some financial relief for road trippers.

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This comprehensive summary captures the key discussions and insights from the Marketplace episode "Consumer Confidence Has Been Taxed," providing a clear overview for those who haven't listened.

Transcript

[Amy Scott]

The federal government's been busy. In the final days of 2024. We'll take a look at what some recent actions from the White House and Congress mean for the economy. From American public Media, this is Marketplace in Baltimore. I'm Amy Scott in for Kai RYSSDAL. It's Monday, December 23rd. Good. Good to have you with us. A new front has opened up in the chip wars. The Biden administration announced today it's investigating alleged unfair trade practices by China not related to the high end chips that power AI and seem to get all the attention these days, but the older everyday computer chips found in cars, household appliances and medical devices. Marketplace's Sabri Benishore gets us started with a look at why China's investment in these so called legacy chips has US Officials concerned.

[Chris Miller]

When the Chinese government invested hundreds of billions of dollars in solar manufacturing in China, solar manufacturing in many other countries was nearly wiped out. It invested hundreds of billions in shipbuilding and US Shipbuilding was almost erased. Now the Biden administration says the same is about to happen with traditional computer chips.

[Stacey Razgon]

Over the past decade, the Chinese government has been pouring many billions of dollars each year into its semiconductor industry.

[Chris Miller]

Chris Miller is a professor at Tufts and author of Chip War. He says the Chinese government has given out subsidized loans and grants, even buying up shares of Chinese chip makers.

[Stacey Razgon]

It's letting Chinese firms sell chips well below market prices and this is giving them the opportunity to grow their market share at the expense of Western firms.

[Chris Miller]

To the extent, he says, that some US Chip makers are becoming hesitant to invest in their own new capacity for for fear that artificially pumped up Chinese competition might make such investment pointless.

[Amy Scott]

I'm actually not convinced that that level.

[Stacey Razgon]

Of risk actually exists for the bulk.

[Jason Oxman]

Of these older generation semiconductors.

[Chris Miller]

Stacey Razgon is a managing director at Bernstein Research. He says low prices might not be enough for Chinese production to be a global threat.

[Kaylee Wells]

Price can be a factor certainly in.

[Jason Oxman]

Your purchase decision, but it's not nearly the only factor.

[Chris Miller]

The Biden administration's investigation would open the door to tariffs on chips which the US doesn't actually import many of and on any anything that has Chinese chips in it, from refrigerators to cars, which the US does import a lot of. That has Jason Oxman concerned. He's president of the iti, a global technology trade association.

[Stacey Razgon]

Clearly, global supply chains are at risk in an escalating trade war between China.

[Amy Scott]

And the U.S. nobody wins.

[Chris Miller]

For its part, China's Ministry of Commerce told Marketplace the investigation was protectionist and pointed to multi billion Dollar American subsidies for u. S based chip manufacturing. It said it would take all necessary measures to protect its. In New York, I'm Sabri Benishore for marketplace.

[Amy Scott]

Wall street was in a festive mood on this Christmas Eve eve. We'll have the details when we do the numbers. The appropriations bill president biden signed over the weekend keeping the government running until mid March, includes $100 billion in disaster aid for communities recovering from recent storms. That was welcome news for business owners in Asheville, North Carolina who've been waiting on low interest loans from the small business administration. One such business owner is Jesse Dean, whose Asheville tea company was wiped out by hurricane Helene back in September. We checked back in the other day to hear how recovery efforts are going so far. Jesse, good to talk with you again.

[Jesse Dean]

Hi, Amy. It's so nice to talk to you again. Thank you for having me.

[Amy Scott]

Well, first of all, how are you doing?

[Jesse Dean]

Well, I'm doing okay. I think overall there's very much a situation of duality here where we've had a lot of wins and a lot of progress and also still a long road to travel. So I'm feeling good overall. Definitely making progress and still dealing with quite a bit as well.

[Amy Scott]

Yeah, I'm sure. So the last time we spoke, you said you were hoping to start selling tea again in time for the holidays. Any updates on that front?

[Jesse Dean]

Yes, I mean, that's one of the good news pieces and really exciting pieces is that we launched pre sales of our tea just before Thanksgiving and we sold out of our holiday trio of teas, which is amazing. We've had a lot of support. Wow. Yeah. And we still have pre sales up for many other tea blends that we're able to produce that still features ingredients from our local farmers. And yeah, we expect our tea to start shipping out to customers within about a week.

[Amy Scott]

That's great news. I mean, is it anything close to what you would have done this time of year before Helene, or is it a lot less?

[Jesse Dean]

It is a lot less than we would have usually done this time of year. Yeah. So, you know, that duality is there too. There's a ton of support and, you know, kind messages and purchases of our products and things like that. And at the same time, yeah, I mean, we've lost well over half of the revenue that we would have typically seen this time of year. You know, and we're definitely not the only ones in that position here either.

[Amy Scott]

So you mentioned there have been a lot of challenges as well. What have been some of the obstacles to Getting back up and running.

[Jesse Dean]

Right. I mean, I think for us it's a lot. I mean, I think the. Just the personal side of things is really difficult. Like on one hand, downtown Asheville is starting to see visitors again. And this is wonderful. We need that so much. And then at the same time, when we're running around town ourselves, holiday shopping or running errands or going to work or whatever, you know, everyone does day to day, there's still debris everywhere in parts of town as well. So. And I mean tremendous amounts of debris and mud. And so it's personally challenging, I think, just to kind of still be living in that. And then I think for our business specifically too, it's. It's a lack of kind of broader scale financial support. And I'm, you know, it's really getting kind of dire I think for so many businesses here. We're almost three months out from the storm and we still haven't received affordable loans to be able to recover our businesses. Folks are getting pretty worried.

[Amy Scott]

How have you personally been able to support yourself during this time of trying to rebuild?

[Jesse Dean]

Well, our team and I all filed for disaster unemployment pretty quickly following the storm because of the kind of obvious physical impact to our location with it, with it completely being gone, it was pretty obvious that we all would need some help there. So we have all been on disaster unemployment, but we're definitely anxious to get our team back on board and start payroll up in the new year as soon as we can.

[Amy Scott]

So I gotta say, Jesse, you do sound down or maybe worn out. I mean, how are you holding up?

[Jesse Dean]

Oh, thanks. I. Well, I think it's both. I think that that's true. You know, I've. I've been working so hard and so has our team, like members of our team behind the scenes just to try to just get stabilized a little bit as far as getting the business back off the ground, getting some team made, understanding our payroll timeline and those kinds of things. And so it's been a lot of work and I think I am a little exhausted to be fair. But I do still feel really grateful though too. I mean, I feel like I'm working hard to stay optimistic and I do feel still really hopeful for the future of Asheville Tea Company and the future of Asheville and western North Carolina too.

[Amy Scott]

So we gotta talk about some tea. I understand that the Christmas blend is sold out, so apologies to any listeners who want it. But tell me about it, what's in it?

[Jesse Dean]

Oh, thanks. Well, that's one of my favorite topics is the tea yeah. So we have three blends that are in that box. And it's the Spiced Apple butter, which apple butter is like a spiced apple jam that's produced here in western North Carolina. So it's based on that.

[Amy Scott]

Mm.

[Jesse Dean]

And then the Snow Day, which is inspired by a hot chocolate, so it features locally roasted cacao. And then the Winter Wonderland is the third holiday blend that has actual Fraser fir in it, which is a native western North Carolina plant. So that one's very cozy.

[Amy Scott]

All right. Jesse Dean is owner of Asheville Tea Company. Thanks so much for coming back on the show.

[Jesse Dean]

Thanks so much for having me, Amy. It's such a pleasure.

[Amy Scott]

Economic indicators are a little sparse in the final days of the year, but we did get one update this morning on consumer confidence, which had been rising in recent months and was expected to rise again. But today the Conference Board said its consumer confidence index actually fell in December by about 7%. Marketplace's Kaylee Wells has more on why and what that means for the engine that's been keeping this economy going.

[Dana M. Peterson]

Consumers aren't necessarily feeling bad about the economy. What's important here is they feel worse than last month.

[Kayla Brun]

It is pretty notable, especially after several months of improvement. And then in one month we have.

[Amy Scott]

A big D down.

[Dana M. Peterson]

Dana M. Peterson is chief economist with the Conference Board, which releases the index. She says the consumers in the survey also note which factors they think are most impacting the economy. For the past few months, consumers continue.

[Kayla Brun]

To point to elections, President, White House. And also there was a spike in.

[Dana M. Peterson]

The number noting tariffs, tariffs, something that almost no respondents mentioned in recent months. That could be partly why in December, inflation actually beat out politics. On the list of influencers, consumers are.

[Kayla Brun]

Expecting that the impact on their costs will be higher.

[Dana M. Peterson]

Kayla Brun is the lead economist at Morning Consult, and she says even if prices aren't rising that fast anymore, everyone's still annoyed with the fact that most prices have stayed high.

[Kayla Brun]

I think it's something consumers are very primed to be upset about, very sensitive to anything that's going to add inflation risk.

[Dana M. Peterson]

And there is one demographic that seems to be most upset, says Michael Green. He's chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management.

[Stacey Razgon]

Basically, the older you were, the less confident you became in this environment.

[Dana M. Peterson]

Greene says that's significant because typically the 55 and older crowd is more confident about the economy than less financially stable younger people.

[Stacey Razgon]

Now I'm suddenly looking at a situation as an older person where my income is starting to be cut by the Federal Reserve, cutting interest rates and now.

[Dana M. Peterson]

That those interest rates are falling, older people who rely on interest from retirement savings are most likely to bring that confidence number down. I'm Cayleigh Else for Marketplace.

[Kayla Brun]

Coming up, despite our 9, 9:30 opening.

[Jesse Dean]

Many of them were here at 4:00 this morning.

[Amy Scott]

Whatever it takes. But first, let's do the numbers. The Dow Jones Industrial average picked up 66 points, 2.10percent to end at 42,906. The Nasdaq gained 192 points, 1% to close at 19,764. And the S&P 500 rose 43 points, 7 10% to finish at the 5,974. Retail giant Walmart dipped 2% after the consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it was suing the company for forcing its drivers to open costly deposit accounts in order to get paid. Walmart has denied the accusations. Nordstrom dropped 1 1/2 percent. The department store announced it would become a private company that'll be bought by its founding family and Mexican department chain El Puerto de Liverpool in a deal worth about six and a quarter billion billion. Bond prices fell. The yield on the ten year t note rose to 4.59%. You're listening to Marketplace.

[Jason Oxman]

This economy can be complicated. That's why the Marketplace newsletter makes understanding it all simple. Get smart takes on the week's biggest stories delivered to your inbox every Friday. No jargon, no hype, just economics you can use. Sign up [e-mail] subscribe hi, I'm Kyle Rysdal, the host of How We Survive. This season is all about the institution that shaped me, the US Military, and how it could shape the future of climate tech. You've probably heard that 2024 was the hottest year on record, that wildfires devastated Los Angeles and that the US Withdrew from the Paris agreement. And while all that might feel pretty terrible, the climate crisis is not an inevitable reality. From simulated climate emergencies to micro grids and sustainable aviation fuel, we look at how the military is investing part of its $850 billion budget in a greener, more resilient future. Listen to how we survive. Wherever you get your podcasts.

[Amy Scott]

This is marketplace. I'm Amy Scott. Over the weekend, Congress not only avoided a government shutdown with that last minute deal to fund the government for another few months. In a rare show of bipartisanship, the Senate also passed something called the Social Security Fairness act. By a vote of 76 to 20. The House approved its version of the bill last month. The act addresses an issue faced by about 3 million former state and local government workers, including teachers, firefighters and police. They've been receiving reduced Social Security, retirement and survivor benefits because they also get separate government pensions. The fix will restore full benefits, and as Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman reports, it'll also cost the Social Security system a whole lot of money.

[Stacey Razgon]

Those 3 million former state and local government workers get reduced Social Security benefits alongside their government pensions under a cost saving reform enacted during the Reagan administration, says Daniel Horowitz at the American Federation of Government Employees. So even if you paid into both systems under current law, you stand to lose most of your Social Security benefit. Fortunately, Congress has finally righted this, and people will get their full Social Security benefit. But Social Security is progressive, meaning lower income workers get relatively higher benefits in retirement. Some state and local government workers look like low earners because they aren't required to pay much into the system, which means they can then end up with bigger Social Security checks. Congress tried to fix this 40 years ago, says Alicia Munnell at the Boston College center for Retirement Research. But it ended up reducing benefits too much for some retirees, not enough for others.

[Jesse Dean]

So the fury of state and local.

[Amy Scott]

Workers persuaded Congress that they should eliminate the provision altogether. It's a step backwards.

[Jesse Dean]

We should have fixed it, not eliminated it.

[Stacey Razgon]

So now some retired government workers will again get outsized Social Security checks, says Maya McGinnis at the committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. And Congress, she says, created a very expensive benefit.

[Kayla Brun]

About $200 billion did not pay for.

[Stacey Razgon]

It, leading to the program becoming insolvent even sooner than it already is going to be about six months sooner, she says, meaning Congress will have to either cut benefits or raise Social Security revenues in 8 1/2 to 9. Hi, I'm Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.

[Amy Scott]

We talked earlier about how consumers are feeling during this holiday shopping season. It's also a time when many people give money to nonprofits and volunteer their time. That volunteering is worth a lot to the economy nearly $168 billion last year, according to a recent survey from the Census Bureau and AmeriCorps. That same survey also found that volunteering is growing again after a big drop off during the height of the pandemic. More than 75 million people volunteered with a nonprofit last year, up from just over 60 million in 2021. Marketplace's Samantha Fields has more.

[Kayla Brun]

Hundreds of people are lined up outside on this freezing December morning to get free fruits and vegetables from a mobile food pantry in the Sunset park neighborhood of Brooklyn. So many that the line stretches down one block, around the corner and down another and never seems to get shorter. Despite our 9 9:30 opening, many of.

[Jesse Dean]

Them were here at 4:00.

[Kayla Brun]

This Thomas Chen is a volunteer with City Harvest nonprofit that runs this mobile food market here. Twice a month, he and about two dozen other volunteers are passing out bright red net bags packed with fresh oranges, pineapples, carrots and mangoes.

[Amy Scott]

Volunteers we're doing great.

[Chris Miller]

This line is not stopped.

[Kayla Brun]

Chen retired in early 2020 and now volunteers a few hours a day, five days a week, gardening, landscaping and collecting trash and Central park and distributing food here with City Harvest.

[Amy Scott]

This is so energizing.

[Kayla Brun]

So whenever I feel down sick wanting.

[Amy Scott]

To give up on the world, this is the place that inspires me.

[Kayla Brun]

Olivia McMahon, the associate director of volunteer programs at City Harvest, says the organization relies heavily on volunteers. We could not handle the amount of distribution that we do. We could not repack all of the amazing produce into family sized portions without our volunteers. They're really, really essential to the work that we do. About 200 people work at the nonprofit. This year, more than 14,000 have volunteered. Unfortunately, the need for food assistance in New York City is the highest on record, so our need for volunteers is really as high as ever. That's true for many nonprofits doing all kinds of work around the country, according to Michael D. Smith, CEO of AmeriCorps.

[Stacey Razgon]

Especially coming out of the pandemic, there's an increase in demand for their services.

[Kayla Brun]

During the height of the pandemic, there was a 7 percentage point drop in Americans volunteering.

[Stacey Razgon]

So many people volunteer through their schools or community organizations where they just couldn't go anymore.

[Kayla Brun]

Lots of nonprofits temporarily also stopped inviting volunteers to help in person in 2020 and 2021. And Smith says lots of parents who make up a big percentage of volunteers suddenly lost childcare.

[Stacey Razgon]

And so the hope was this was a blip and once Americans returned to work and public life that we would see a rebound.

[Kayla Brun]

And that's what AmeriCorps found is happening. Brenna Ververs at the Brooklyn Public Library says they've had more than 1,000 active volunteers this year, more than before the pandemic. We have volunteers staffing the welcome desk here at Central Library. We have volunteers stationed in branches serving as computer coaches and personalized tech help. They also have volunteers facilitating English conversation groups both in person and online, something that's new since the pandemic these days, Verver says every month when she runs orientation sessions for new library volunteers, I'm kind of surprised at how many more.

[Jesse Dean]

People there were than the last time we did one.

[Chris Miller]

Good morning.

[Jesse Dean]

Good morning.

[Amy Scott]

Thank you. You're welcome. Have a good day.

[Kayla Brun]

City Harvest has also seen a steady increase in new volunteers over the last couple of years. Danielle Allen is one of them. She's 28 and lives in Brooklyn, and this is her first day volunteering at a mobile market.

[Amy Scott]

I actually signed up the day after the election. I think I was feeling a real drive to connect with my community and to help out in a tangible way.

[Kayla Brun]

She had already been volunteering with an informal group picking up trash once a month in her neighborhood. But she wanted to do more, partly.

[Amy Scott]

Because my family went to food pantries as a beneficiary of them when I was growing up. And so I have felt a real drive to give back now that I'm older and in a position to help.

[Kayla Brun]

Walking up to the mobile market for her first volunteer shift, I was shocked.

[Amy Scott]

To see the line wrapped around the building even on this cold day. So seems like there's a great need in the community.

[Kayla Brun]

But she says it also seems like there's a great willingness to help. I'm Samantha Fields for Marketplace.

[Amy Scott]

I'm going to guess that at least a couple of you are hearing this as you're out running last minute holiday errands. I know I have a few more gifts to pick up before stores close. So as the holiday shopping season wraps up, we thought we'd check in with one of our retail regulars to hear how things have been going. Here's Ashley Morkin, owner of Unglued, a craft and handmade goods gift shop in Fargo, North Dakota.

[Kaylee Wells]

This holiday season has been interesting. We did freak out a couple weeks ago. We were down about 20% for the beginning of the holiday season and now we're down only about 8%. If people are like me this year we're shopping even later than normal because the holiday season is so short. It's suddenly like you freak out and realize that Christmas is like basically tomorrow. And so I think I'm seeing that with other people as well, not just myself. I am a little bit more stressed this year than other years because I have the weight of the responsibility of having grown our team this year to make sure that the holiday season does really well so we can maintain their full time positions. Basically, we've been a shop for 13 years. This is the first year I have two other people being full time with me along with our part time crew. And so I really need this holiday season to do well, to sustain us through the slow season. That's quarter one. Individual customers are spending about the same as last year with their purchases, but we hear things anecdotally a little differently. So I had a pile of things somebody was going to buy for themselves and they had me take all that back and they chose to only buy for their gift list. They still chose a lot of things for their gift list, but they did set aside the few things that they were going to get for themselves that were more expensive. And so I think I'm seeing that a little bit more because we work with local makers. They are stocking us every single single day and they're seeing what's sold. And so that's been really cool. That's one of the benefits of doing what we do. Very mission focused, is that we work with so many local makers and so now that a lot of their holiday shows are done, they can stock us. So last minute stocking isn't the hardest for us as a local handmade shop.

[Amy Scott]

That was Ashley Morkin, owner of Unglued and Fargo, North Dakota. This final note on the way out today, if you're road tripping for the holidays in a gasoline powered vehicle, filling up will be a little more affordable this year. Gas Buddy estimates the national average price at $3.01 per gallon, up 3 cents from last week, but 9 cents lower than this time a year ago. 32 states still have averages below $3 a gallon. Our daily production team includes Andy Corbin, Nicholas Guillong, Maria Hollenhorst, Sarah Leeson, John McHenry and Sophia Terenzio. I'm Amy Scott. We'll be back tomorrow. This is APM.