{"id":28320,"date":"2017-04-07T20:06:02","date_gmt":"2017-04-08T00:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goebt.com\/economic-conditions-2017-outlook\/"},"modified":"2017-04-07T20:06:02","modified_gmt":"2017-04-08T00:06:02","slug":"economic-conditions-2017-outlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goebt.com\/economic-conditions-2017-outlook\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic Conditions: 2017 Outlook"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 2016 United States presidential election left a considerable portion the country with many uncertainties about the future.&nbsp; One major area of concern going into 2017 is the country\u2019s economy and the outlook for current and potential business owners.&nbsp; While 80% of roughly 1,400 executives from small and mid-sized businesses across the country say that they are optimistic about the economy, there are still some lingering worries<sup>1<\/sup>.&nbsp; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.snagajob.com\/employers\/erc\/article\/small-business-owner-report-2017-outlook\/\" rel=\"noopener\">A survey by Bank of America<\/a> showed that small business owners are most concerned with:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Health care costs<\/li>\n<li>Effectiveness of the U.S. government<\/li>\n<li>Strength of the U.S. dollar<\/li>\n<li>Consumer spending<\/li>\n<li>U.S. and\/or global stock market<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Another survey, completed by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2017\/feb\/17\/small-business-owners-more-optimistic-about-econom\/\" rel=\"noopener\">National Small Business Association<\/a>, also found that 80% of small business owners are confident in the future of their business.&nbsp; In this survey, business owners also expressed concern about the federal deficit as well as ending partisan gridlock.<\/p>\n<p>So where does the c-store industry stand in terms of 2017\u2019s economic conditions?&nbsp; 60% of retailers and 73 percent of suppliers surveyed for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.csnews.com\/industry-news-and-trends\/special-features\/will-2017-economic-conditions-be-c-store-favorable?cc=3&amp;utm_source=KnowledgeMarketing&amp;utm_medium=1644878&amp;utm_campaign=Convenience%20Store%20News%20dailyNews_01\/25\/2017&amp;eid=364937390&amp;bid=1644878\" rel=\"noopener\">Convenience Store News\u2019 forecast study<\/a> said that they too view 2017 economic conditions as positive.&nbsp; Maureen Maguire told CS News this optimism is justified and went on to explain why today\u2019s consumer is \u201chealthy\u201d. &nbsp;With the economy operating near full employment, low interest rates, low inflation, and the stock market rising, we\u2019re seeing the effects of positive wealth that circles back to the consumer.<\/p>\n<p>Maguire says that if retailers are paying attention and giving consumers what they\u2019re asking for, they\u2019ll continue to benefit in the current economic climate. &nbsp;However, she also says there are some potential issues to be on the lookout for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A stimulus package that could cause inflation and interest rates to increase.<\/li>\n<li>Trade limitations that could cause market volatility, slowing corporate and consumer spending.<\/li>\n<li>A rising cost of financing expansions and new store creation because of increased interest rates.<\/li>\n<li>Decrease in convenient store spending due to low gas prices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. http:\/\/markets.businessinsider.com\/news\/stocks\/small-business-optimism-on-trump-economy-in-jpmorgan-survey-2017-2-1001773566-1001773566<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2016 United States presidential election left a considerable portion the country with many uncertainties about the future.&nbsp; One major area of concern going into 2017 is the country\u2019s economy and the outlook for current and potential business owners.&nbsp; While 80% of roughly 1,400 executives from small and mid-sized businesses across the country say that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":244,"featured_media":28321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[205],"class_list":["post-28320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-industry-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goebt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goebt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goebt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goebt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/244"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goebt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/goebt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goebt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goebt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goebt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goebt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}