U.S. Retailers Prefer to Keep the Champagne on Ice
On the eve of tomorrow’s Commerce Department report on December retail sales, the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and Goldman Sachs released a combined report showing U.S. chain store sales dropping 3% for the week ending Jan. 9. U.S. retailers are hoping for a promising report, but know full well of the challenges they face in the first quarter of 2010.
In its weekly report, the ICSC said, “consumers had little reason to shop and bargain-hunting consumers had limited clearance merchandise.”
U.S. retailers are mostly concerned with the lack of consumer shopping reasons, and with no major shopping holiday scheduled in the first quarter of this year, many shoppers may decide to keep their wallets closed for the foreseeable future.
Tack on a double-digit unemployment rate and a lack of confidence for the U.S. consumer, and many retail executives are going to keep the champagne on ice even if the government report exceeds expectations.
“The big negative is the high level of unemployment and we don’t see it getting better in the near term,” Macy’s Inc. Chief Executive Terry Lundren told Reuters, per The Washington Post. The environment remains “challenging” with consumers cautious, he adds.
