The Real Economy Blog

Christopher Shaker, Partner, Consumer Products Senior Analyst

@ChrisShakerCP

Chris is a member of the firm’s national consumer products and retail teams. He has over 15 years of experience providing accounting and auditing services, primarily in the consumer products and retail industries. With a client base focused in the middle market, Chris enjoys his role as both a technical resource and business advisor to his clients.

Chris has helped his clients through complex accounting and business issues including business combinations, challenges with international operations, complex equity transactions and complex revenue recognition. He also has experience with mergers and acquisitions and has helped clients with extensive due diligence projects as part of successful buy-side and sell-side transactions.

In January 2018, Chris was selected as a senior analyst in RSM’s cutting edge Industry Eminence Program, which positions its senior analysts to understand, forecast and communicate economic, business and technology trends shaping the industries RSM serves. These senior analysts advise clients on conditions impacting middle market leaders.

Retail sales stay hot, but for how long?

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The July retail sales numbers released by the Commerce Department on Thursday continued to reinforce that the resilient consumer has kept the economy afloat amid trade tensions and an unstable economic environment outside of the United States. The question is, how long will it last? While retail sales showed strength across many sectors, the highlight ... READ MORE >

Consumer companies stand to gain from opportunity zones

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Opportunity zones—those specially created districts that offer tax breaks to investors—provide some attractive benefits to consumer businesses. The U.S. Treasury Department in April clarified many of the outstanding questions related to OZs, which were created under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to spur economic growth in lagging geographic areas. The ... READ MORE >

Can consumers carry the economy amid weak business investment?

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Durable goods orders in April showed broad weakness, as expected, falling 2.1 percent. However, in addition to April results,  March durable goods numbers were also revised downward, compounding the impact and creating a weaker trend. A closer look at the data demonstrates that shipments of goods, excluding aircraft, were down sharply; this can be considered ... READ MORE >

Fashion to get lift from spending, amid trade and labor challenges

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Consumer confidence and spending created some momentum for the fashion sector in 2018. Continued strong consumer confidence, along with the threat of trade regulations and a tight labor market, will be dominant themes for the sector—and the broader retail space—heading into 2019. In 2018, apparel retailers saw sales rise 7.5 percent for the week of Black ... READ MORE >