2024 Year in Review: A Difficult Year with Some Hopeful Changes

2024 was not the economic salve many had hoped for. A Presidential election was always going to make the year complicated, and, in that respect, it didn’t disappoint. We did see inflation rates fall this year, even though prices didn’t plummet with them. 2024 really was a year of uncertainty and it was reflected in the economy. There is still a fair amount of uncertainty as we head into 2025, yet this past year has set the table for what could be an exciting time to come.

Before we get into any other business, we should tackle the largest topic of the year, the election. It was one of the most eventful elections in living memory and will have a profound impact on our future. We saw incumbent President Biden step out of the race with only a few months to go until the election, a historic move that shocked everyone. The resulting race between Trump and Harris was so close that no one was certain of victory until late on election night. The closeness of the race and the differences between the candidates caused turmoil for businesses and consumers alike. Both were concerned about policy changes and therefore businesses were reluctant to lower prices and consumers didn’t want to spend. This uncertainty stagnated some of the growth that could have been experienced this year.

Once Trump won the election it did provide more clarity on what could happen in the coming months and years. We don’t really know everything that will happen, yet the turmoil of the election is over. This was a boon in the later half of 2024 as Black Friday quickly followed the election. The lead up to the biggest sales event of the year had been muted, yet it seems that it was still successful. Consumers shifted primarily to online shopping, which hurt physical retail, yet it was still a record setting event.

Late last year also saw the dissolution of the Albertsons and Kroger merger and saw the shocking development of the former suing the latter for breaching the contract. The failed merger has sent shockwaves through the grocery industry and established a precedent that could prevent future large-scale mergers and acquisitions. It is unlikely that we will see anything of this scale in 2025 or the near future.

2024 also saw mass layoffs across multiple industries. Those layoffs extended to executive positions where CEO’s changed frequently. It was mostly a response to the difficult nature of 2024. In many cases the executive level changes were knee jerk reactions to poor sales figures and a desire to quickly turn around a business plan that was failing with consumers. 2025 should give us the opportunity to see some of those plans come to fruition. If they fail, we could see another whirlwind of layoffs in the new year.

2024 was a year of slow progress, yet it was not all bad. Some companies found a way to thrive, and others survived another year. 2025 should provide more clarity and give a sense of direction to those businesses that have been floundering. The election of a new president always brings change and if 2024 showed us one thing, it’s that something has to give. That change could be positive or negative, yet we can’t have another stalemate year.