With all that has been written about the economy of late, I haven’t seen a lot discussed about the correlation between unseasonable weather conditions and consumer spending. This winter has been particularily brutal in many parts of the United States. A few days ago, I read that there was snow on the ground in 49 states. Go Hawaii.

Consumer spending drives a big part of our economic health. Retailers have long known the relationship between bad weather and purchase behavior. Obviously if people are homebound because of weather conditions, they aren’t in a store buying. I used to believe that a “snow day” in retail just meant that demand increased on the following days. If I needed a shirt on Monday and couldn’t get to the store, it made sense to me that I still needed a shirt on Tuesday. A friend of mine in retail explained to me that I was not the ideal “shopping” consumer, and, in fact, a large portion of “lost” sales due to low traffic are in reality lost forever.

In addition to physical limitations created by the weather, retailers also know that mood has a profound effect on consumer spending. Many psychologists and behavioral economists believe that it is sunlight, as opposed to temperature, that has the greatest effect on consumer mood in the winter-to-spring transition.

If you were shopping in Omaha over this past weekend, you know this to be true. It was 35 degrees and sunny on Saturday and the stores I went to were packed. I was in such a good mood that I went shopping for a new lawnmower with a foot of snow still on the ground (while the guy at Home Depot thought my timing a little odd, he must have been in a good mood too, as we had a great discussion on the finer points of lawnmower buying).

So, the politicians can debate stimulus packages all they want – come on sunshine.