Reasons why this recession makes no sense: According to June 2002 round-up figures released this afternoon by comScore (which bought the related numbers reporting part of Jupiter/Media Metrix earlier this year), year-over-year US consumer online spending zoomed up 46% to $7.8 billion and non-travel sales rose 28% to $9.7 billion. Even apparel rose 7% to $1.3 billion.



BUT, consumer electronics were down year over year 11% to $716 million, and music declined 28% to $193 million. So American consumers will fly to the beach, and pop for a brand new swimsuit, but hey save money online by replaying last year's CDs on last year's CD player.



I just wish these numbers were easy to compare against sales in the offline world. Now, that would be truly interesting.