Thanks, Swine Flu

As if the economy needed more problems, now we have the swine flu, and with it reports that it could further destroy consumer confidence.As one article says: One big fear is that spooked consumers will cut back spending on travel, restaurant meals and trips to shopping malls.We hope that the severity (or hype) of the flu doesn’t get to the point where people make less shopping trips, sending retail sales even lower. However, we’re thinking that tourism-based retail is bound to take some kind of near-term hit if all we see on the cable news networks for a while is the word “pandemic.”What are you thoughts on how this could potentially harm the retail industry, if at all?