Oct 14, 2007

Retailers worry, but hope to fill Santa’s sleighBy Patt JohnsonDesMoinesRegister.com

Merchants are already shelving Christmas goods and trying to get a jump-start on what is expected to be a lackluster holiday season.

An ailing housing market, high energy prices and slew of Chinese toy recalls are playing on shoppers’ minds and budgets, analysts said.

“We have almost a perfect storm” for a flat holiday season, said Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group, a consumer behavior marketing company in Charleston, S.C.

The National Retail Federation, the largest retail trade association in the United States, has predicted only a 4 percent increase in holiday sales compared with last year when retailers rung up $456.2 billion in sales, a 4.6 percent increase from the previous year. On average, the NRF reported that holiday sales have increased 4.8 percent for the last 10 years. If predictions come true, this year would be the slowest growth in holiday sales since 2002.

That’s not great news for retailers who depend on fourth-quarter receipts, which for some account for more than 20 percent of their annual sales.

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