holidays

Final Holiday Numbers Top Expectations

Washington, DC - After a season full of peaks and valleys, final figures for retailers' 2011 holiday sales beat expectations, rising 4.1% to $471.5 billion year-over year. Earlier forecasts by the National Retail Federation were... more »

Holiday Shopping: Merchants Ring up Robust Sales

Wilton, CT - Drawn by the mild weather and a national small business promotion, shoppers helped boost holiday sales in local stores this season, with most merchants in an informal survey reporting better results than... more »

National Retail Federation Says Holiday Sales up 4.1 Percent, But Discounting Clouds Results

New York, NY - A major retail trade organization is announcing that holiday sales rose 4.1 percent, better than its forecast for a 3.8 percent gain. But the season was clouded by heavy discounting needed... more »

Local Merchants Tend to Report Strong Holiday Season

Petoskey, MI - The 2011 holiday season brought gifts such as solid sales performance and store traffic for numerous Northern-Michigan based retailers."We were very happy," said Matt Norcross, owner of McLean and Eakin Booksellers in... more »

Sidmouth Shops Fare Well this Christmas

Sidmouth, UK - MILD weather and lack of town centre road closures helped make Christmas 2011 a better one for Sidmouth's shopkeepers.Last year's snow and gas pipe replacement road closures caused grief among many traders,... more »

Small Businesses End Year on Positive Note

Macomb, IL - While the holiday shopping season isn't quite finished and many retailers are still handling gift returns, processing gift cards and offering post-Christmas clearance sales, a number of small businesses in Macomb say... more »

Local Retailers See Hope in Holiday Sales

Newburyport, MA - Shoppers gave local retailers the best gift of all this season — a strong boost in sales to help soften the effects of what had otherwise been a lackluster year for business.Several... more »

Downtown Asheville Merchants Pleased with Strong Holiday Sales

Asheville, NC - Sometimes in retail, running out of merchandise is a good sign."Our season was excellent — good traffic throughout and substantial increases over last year and over 2009," said Dean Peterson, general manager... more »