Luggage Sales Off... Is This An Indicator?

Stat of the Day: Merrill Lynch’s Monday Morning Market Memo for North America shows that luggage sales have fallen two of the last three months after running at a near record rate over the past six months.

In analyst David A. Rosenberg’s words, "Either people intend to stay close to home or those who do intend to travel are scaling back their suitcase purchases in response to the advent of these airline per-bag fees."

He may be on to something here, as I keep hearing and reading the term "staycation." But is this really a new phenomenon, or is it just media hype? Your thoughts, please…