What bugs me about these things is that lots of people don't realize this an avg # sold in X time. I have heard people say well it has been X seconds so 1k colas have been sold. Well it is 3am in the morning so no they haven't. At 3pm 10k will sell in that time.

Maybe this is making a distinction with out a difference but I think the short cut of not saying avg leads to many thinking that literately every X seconds an event happens. I have seen so many news reports that use sloppy wording that leads to this kind of thinking.

Do the stats revealed here really reflect the current retail? Or does it just take a stat trend (for example X sold in Y minutes/seconds)and apply a linear equation[1] to "predict" how much consumers would buy?

[1] Something like this?

   f(t) = m*t + c

1 in 10 Best Buy customers gets a virus removed???

Firearms spending 2/3 of toys?

I wouldn't mind a pause button.