Oct 21, 2007

Retailers brace for ho-ho-hum salesBy Andrea K. WalkerBaltimoreSun.com

Kim Letke bought her first Christmas gift of the season recently when she found the Moon Sand castle play set for her kids.

But the Timonium woman believes it’s probably going to be a tough season for her family because the work her husband does in the home improvement business has slowed along with housing sales.

“We might be spending a little less this year,” said Letke, as the stay-at-home mom watched her kids run around the play area at Towson Town Center recently.

Retailers are hearing similar consumer concerns, and many merchants are braced for sluggish sales as they prepare for the holidays. The shopping season typically begins modestly just after Halloween as retailers gear up for the official post-Thanksgiving start. But crews are already decorating some stores, and holiday catalogs from Montgomery Ward, Neiman Marcus, L.L. Bean and others are in the mail.

The National Retail Federation predicts that sales this holiday season will post the weakest growth in five years. And some of the nation’s top retailers are lowering sales forecasts for the year or planning to hire fewer workers in November and December.

For shoppers, that probably means steep discounts and extended store sales. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. already announced several price cuts on toys and other merchandise; that decision from the world’s largest retailer is likely to force others to follow, analysts said. Other companies, including Nordstrom, have started marking down fall goods to make way for holiday merchandise.

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