Annie Lang Hartman

Coming up... Not to toot my own horn, but we make colorful, fun, and functional things.

Every expectation is that retail sales were likely strong in March.

Elizabeth Pancotti at the Groundwork Collaborative says there are two reasons for that.

One is it is tax refund season, and we know that every tax refund season we see a bump in retail sales as folks spend those one-time refunds.

And two, as prices go up, retail sales go up.

And prices have been going up.

That infusion of cash is likely making people less sensitive to price increases from both tariffs and the war on Iran, at least for now.

I suspect as we head out of tax season, this is really the inflection point in all of that data.

But Mark Matthews at the National Retail Federation says that is still an if.

Gas prices have a big impact on consumers' psyches, and they're now about a dollar higher than before the war.

Wendy Edelberg at West Exec Advisor says that translates to roughly $70 more a month on average for a two-car household.

I'm Samantha Fields for Marketplace.

Business for Wild Letty right now is actually pretty good.

It's just the start of the year for us.

Winter is very slow.

For the year, we're up 10%, which feels really, really good.

Most of the money that is coming in is online orders.

And then we also do wholesale.

So we work with other retailers all over the country.

We're definitely feeling the price increases.