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Anxiety - not uncertainty - choking holiday sales
Posted
at
9:30 am
by Amy Rolph
Here's the latest from the Associated Press on holiday retail sales:
Electronics sellers and online merchants thrived in November, particularly the start of the holiday shopping season, but clothing and luxury merchants struggled, according to estimates released today.
Those results, combined with a trimmed sales prediction for retailers' official November results, raise worries that some sectors could face tough going in the critical countdown to Christmas as they grapple with frugal Americans contending with job insecurity and tight credit.
“Last year, it was uncertainty that was driving the cautiousness,” said Mary Delk, director of Deloitte Consulting. This year, it's “anxiety about their (own) personal finances” that's making shoppers more frugal.
Fat discounts drove shoppers to stores and online this past weekend, and Delk thinks it's likely they won't come back until the season's final hours when the bargains are even better.
The International Council of Shopping Centers trimmed its November sales growth forecast on Tuesday, citing more shoppers who are saying they're putting off holiday shopping compared with a year ago.
Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at market research firm NPD Group, says that what's comforting is that shoppers, who had slashed their spending all year, bought plenty of items for themselves this past weekend. That means there's plenty of gift buying to go, he said.
Department stores suffered an 8.6 percent drop in November, on top of a 6.3 percent decline last year. On Black Friday, sales for this sector fell 4 percent.
Electronics sales, helped by new video game releases, rose 6.6 percent. What further helped boost the monthly figure was a robust 8 percent sales gain on Black Friday, according to SpendingPulse. Meanwhile, the data service offered more evidence that online sales are roaring back. Online sales soared 12.3 percent in November compared with November 2008, when sales increased 8.3 percent. No figures were available for Black Friday performance.
-Associated Press content
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