Tentative good news from the Bureau of Economic Analysis – personal and disposable income both rose by 0.2% in February. Perhaps more importantly for retail (net lease included) personal consumption expenditures increased by 0.8%. This is compared with somewhat weaker numbers in January – personal income increase of 0.2%, disposable income increase of less that 0.1% and personal consumption expenditures increase of 0.4%. As of now at least, it seems consumers are loosening their wallets a bit as we progress into 2012.

However, consumers are also retaining a strong focus on savings. Though personal savings did decrease from 4.3% in January to 3.7% in February, it has not decreased to pre-recession numbers. This trend could be long lived as many consumers are still highly value focused.

Consumers may be spending more but not in numbers that would entail a large shift in behavior. It is unlikely that higher end retail and other struggling sectors such as casual dining will reap heavy benefits from these expenditure developments. For the increasingly popular net lease value segment, this news should prove positive towards their future success. For instance, Dollar General’s same store sales increased 6% in the year ending February 3rd. Dollar Tree also witnessed a 6% same store sales increase for fiscal year 2011 and forecasts a 7.2% in sales per square foot. The economic climate remains unsteady and consumers should be expected to tread carefully.