About Those Stimulus Checks...

Word is coming in on how the stimulus checks are doing—

Wal-Mart and Costco has good news to report:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp. led U.S. retailers reporting higher June sales as shoppers facing soaring gasoline and food costs used federal tax rebates to buy discounted clothes and groceries…



Certainly the stimulus checks gave consumers additional money to spend,'' Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, said in an interview. ``Consumers are buying the deals. If retailers offer consumers great deals, they'll go out and shop for back-to-school. If they don't, consumers won't.

So consumers indeed are spending those stimulus checks, but many are saving them for worse times as well and are paying off debt.

Some households apparently used tax rebate checks to pay down debt and help offset rising costs for food and fuel, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker said on Tuesday…He said that anecdotal evidence indicated that workers were "putting their checks to paying off ... some credit card debt," adding: "It will take until next year before we disentangle (this)."

But before you go on thinking that we Americans are all high-brow and responsible, there have been other areas where a significant amount of those stimulus checks are going:

Adult entertainment Web sites began seeing a spike in business shortly after the first wave of checks went out in mid-May, according to Adult Internet Market Research Co., a New York firm that tracks the adult online world…Thirty-two percent of respondents referenced the recent stimulus package as part of their decision to either become a new member or renew an existing membership," said Jillian Fox, a spokeswoman for LSGModels, the company that tipped off the research firm.

Even in a period of near-recession in the America, there's always time for entertainment.