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I'll come right out and say it: I've always dreaded and hated grocery shopping. Even during the best of times, before "social distancing" and "quarantine" were a way of life, I just couldn't stand it; I avoided it whenever I could.
Once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and trips out - to mostly empty shelves - became a roll of the dice with my health... fuggetabouddit.
Looks like I'm in good company: Retail sales tanked more than 16% in April as the pandemic took hold. By May, they swung back and rebounded more than 17%, but even that was around 6% lower than May 2019.
Here's the thing, though... The massive, wholesale move to online shopping has led to forecasts of 18% growth in e-commerce.
When you think about it, that growth is no mystery. Except for filling up my tank (which I'm not doing often these days), I'm doing just about all my shopping online. Instacart, Amazon, eBay - name it, and I've probably bought there recently.
Hundreds of millions of other consumers have, too. It's created an extremely bullish setup for the entire e-commerce segment.
And I don't think that boom is over, not by a long shot. That means there's plenty of time left for "smart money" moves in this space...
About the Author
Tom Gentile, options trading specialist for Money Map Press, is widely known as America's No. 1 Pattern Trader thanks to his nearly 30 years of experience spotting lucrative patterns in options trading. Tom has taught over 300,000 traders his option trading secrets in a variety of settings, including seminars and workshops. He's also a bestselling author of eight books and training courses.