Retailers Look to Last-Minute Shopping
New York (AP) — Despite generous discounting and expanded shopping hours earlier in the season, many stores are finding themselves in the same predicament as in recent years: waiting for those last-minute shoppers in the final days before Christmas who seem to be procrastinating even more than a year ago.
Based on early reports from analysts and malls, sales results were generally unimpressive this past weekend, as shoppers were held back by a snow storm that spread a mix of sleet, freezing rain and snow from the Great Lakes states to New England. Consumers, fretting about economic worries, were also delaying their shopping even more this year, knowing there’s a full weekend before Christmas, when the bargains will be even better.
Meanwhile, for online retailers, which likely finished their busiest days last week, their fate appears to be already sealed: holiday sales didn’t live up to industry’s hopes as lower-income shoppers pulled back on spending amid a housing slump. ComScore Inc. reported on Sunday that online sales from Nov. 1 through Dec. 14 rose 18 percent, below the 26 percent growth rate seen in the year-ago period and below the 20 percent projection for the season.
“This holiday season at this point has been disappointing, whether they’re brick and mortar, catalog or online,” said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group, based in Charleston, S.C. “Shopper are more frugal and cost-conscious because they have less money to spend.” As for Saturday and Sunday, he said, “This weekend was busy, but it wasn’t huge.”
Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak RCT Corp., was more upbeat, noting that the fate of the holiday season depends on the final stretch, predicting business in the final days will be “huge.” According to ShopperTrak, five of the remaining days left until Christmas account for the biggest sales days of the season.Shoppers at malls over the weekend seemed to be taking their time.
“I think there’s better deals now,” said Mike Weigel of Shoreview, Minn. He just started holiday shopping and was on the hunt for a plasma TV while at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., Friday afternoon.
