Sep 6, 2008

Shoppers are changing their buying habitsBy Maria HalkiasDallasNews.com

If they need it, they will come – but they’re spending less.

That’s the shopper cadence major retail chains have seen this back-to-school season. After spending economic stimulus checks in early summer, shoppers delayed any further purchases, and sales finally picked up in the last week of August.

What does that mean for Christmas?

While the last quarter of 2007 gives stores some easy comparisons, weakening trends suggest the holiday shopping season could be another last-minute nail-biter for an industry that lives by the fourth quarter.

Three out of four consumers said the downturn in the U.S. economy has significantly or somewhat changed how they shop this year, according to TNS Retail Forward Inc.’s ShopperScape August survey.

“Signs suggest that retail spending will resume a weakening trend through the end of the year,” said Frank Badillo, senior economist at TNS Retail Forward.

The International Council of Shopping Centers index of major chains rose 1.7 percent in August, below the 2 percent that had been forecast.

Excluding Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s better-than-expected 3 percent increase, August’s results are unchanged from a year ago.

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