Dec 29, 2008

Stronger than expected holiday sales reported by Fulton area retailersBy Don NorfleetFultonSun.com

Retail sales for most Fulton businesses were up this year during the traditional holiday season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, a Fulton Sun survey reveals.

Many retailers were surprised by the strength of sales because of so much talk on the national level about a recent decline in the economy.

On Friday it was reported that Americans spent much less on gifts this season than they did last year, according to SpendingPulse, a division of MasterCard Advisors. Retail sales dropped between 5.5 percent and 8 percent compared with last year, the data showed, or between 2 percent and 4 percent after stripping out auto and gas sales.

However, local sales at Wal-Mart were reported as especially strong this holiday season. Wal-Mart throughout the economic downturn has recorded better than expected sales throughout the nation.

Strong Christmas season sales were not confined to the big discount chain store in Fulton. Most small stores in Fulton also reported strong sales or almost equal to last year’s sales during the holiday season.

Tony Loehr, manager of the Wal-Mart store at 2000 North Bluff St. in Fulton, said “we had a great holiday season. Sales were up substantially, and much better than expected.”

Loehr said electronics led Fulton sales for gift items at Christmas. “We sold a ton of Blu-Ray DVD players and a lot of high definition television sets. Electronic games and video consoles sold extremely well. We are well satisfied with our big gains over last year during the same period. Sales were much better than we expected,” Loehr said.

Brandon Irwin, a Sears sales representative for the store at 504 Commons Dr, said sales were steady this year and Sears Craftsman tools and wrenches with lifetime guarantees were especially popular choices for Christmas gifts. “We had a gift rack in the store and people spent a lot of time in front of it. The power drills that were half-off the regular price sold extremely well. Washers and dryers were another popular gift that husbands wanted to get for their wives,” Irwin said.

Sales of digital converter boxes for analog television sets also were popular gift items at Sears, Irwin said. On Feb. 17 television stations will cease broadcasting analog signals. Only digital signals will be broadcast. No signal will be available for analog television sets without a converter box.

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