Remember the "great" holiday shopping kickoff Thanksgiving wknd? ... I guess boom has gone bust.

[marmar]

from the AP, via Yahoo!:



Retailers Look to Last-Minute Shopping
Sunday December 16, 6:26 pm ET
By Anne D'Innocenzio, AP Business Writer
Retailers Look to Final Holiday Shopping Days to Meet Sales Goals After Unimpressive Weekend


NEW YORK (AP) -- Despite generous discounting and expanded shopping hours earlier in the season, many stores are finding themselves in the same predicament as in recent years: waiting for those last-minute shoppers in the final days before Christmas who seem to be procrastinating even more than a year ago.

Based on early reports from analysts and malls, sales results were generally unimpressive this past weekend, as shoppers were held back by a snow storm that spread a mix of sleet, freezing rain and snow from the Great Lakes states to New England. Consumers, fretting about economic worries, were also delaying their shopping even more this year, knowing there's a full weekend before Christmas, when the bargains will be even better.

Meanwhile, for online retailers, which likely finished their busiest days last week, their fate appears to be already sealed: holiday sales didn't live up to industry's hopes as lower-income shoppers pulled back on spending amid a housing slump. ComScore Inc. reported on Sunday that online sales from Nov. 1 through Dec. 14 rose 18 percent, below the 26 percent growth rate seen in the year-ago period and below the 20 percent projection for the season.

"This holiday season at this point has been disappointing, whether they're brick and mortar, catalog or online," said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, based in Charleston, S.C. "Shopper are more frugal and cost-conscious because they have less money to spend." As for Saturday and Sunday, he said, "This weekend was busy, but it wasn't huge."

Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak RCT Corp., was more upbeat, noting that the fate of the holiday season depends on the final stretch, predicting business in the final days will be "huge." According to ShopperTrak, five of the remaining days left until Christmas account for the biggest sales days of the season. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071216/holiday_shopping.html

[napi21]

1. Is anyone really surprised at that? Anyone who is, must have their

head up their....

Gas prices up
Food prices up
Health Care prices up
Natural gas prices up
Homes being repossessed
Bankruptcies up

WAGES STAGNENT OR FALLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm no financial expert, but all anyone has to do is think a little logically and the results of all that is LOWER SALES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NMMNG]

2. Maybe the recipients of the Buscho tax cuts should do more shopping

The rest of us just don't have it. :shrug:

[Vincardog]

3. How long did they think they could ship JOBS overseas and import crap from China before it resulted

no sale? We can not spend what we can not earn.

[tularetom]

4. They can always find a reason other than

THE ECONOMY SUCKS

People are hurting but the cheerleading media doesn't want to admit it. So they make up all these bullshit reasons like the weather, etc.

we've gotten calls from some family members suggesting that we forgo exchanging gifts this year. My son in law lost his job, my nephew had a business go bust, and I don't think either family can afford gifts. Actually thats more than OK with us. The whole gift thing has gotten to be a big pain in the ass anyway.

I'd like to forget the whole frickin thing. I haven't been in a store since thanksgiving except to buy feed for the critters. Oh, and wine.

[Nay]

5. I can relate, tom. The whole effin' gift buying thing is totally out of hand,

and has been for years. Amid the cries of the faux Christians about how merchants say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas, who remembers those very same Christians, 30 years ago, wringing their hands about how COMMERCIAL Christmas was getting???

Let's go back to a sane holiday season -- enjoy your family, take a day off, drink some wine, and cook up some great food. And let SHOPPING return to its normal place in the universe.

[NMMNG]

6. Atheist Eve remembers

[Arugula Latte]

7. I think more and more people are coming to that conclusion.

The gift giving thing is utter madness. It has gotten waaaaaay out of bounds. After years of running around in December like a chickens with their heads cut off buying stuff for people who don't really need it, a lot of Americans are just saying "screw it."

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. agreed. Xmas has become buying crap for people who don't need it.

[never_get_over_it]

12. We did a fun thing tonight for Christmas

I called up my nephews 13, 9 and 6 and told them to go to www.heifer.org and pick something from the on line gift catalog. 13 year old picked water bufalo, 9 year old picked rabbits and the 6 year old picked chicks...then we read all the descriptions of each choice and I paid for their selections

Good teaching lesson for them and one of my favorite "charities" WIN WIN.....

[sandnsea]

9. Toys For Tots donations only 25% of last year

in Eugene. They had to send out a special SOS for help and were at 60% last I heard. Then I heard another snip on a news channel somewhere that that was true across the country.

We've noticed a sort of gloom where I live. Not as many lights, no spark in the air, kind of a gloom.

[Skittles]

13. it's a tough thing

we know it's not because the spirit isn't there - it's the economic means that is being squeezed :(

[Raine]

10. "online sales from Nov. 1 through Dec. 14 ROSE 18 percent

below the 26 percent growth rate seen in the year-ago period and below the 20 percent projection for the season." It ROSE 18 percent but still they complain because it didn't meet their "projection". :wtf: Just be glad you got growth, the average guy would be thrilled to get an increase like that! The way things are with the economy they should be glad they didn't end up completely in the red.

[sandnsea]

14. As more people go online,

and more people get comfortable with shopping online, there is a natural rise in sales. That's what they're talking about. The online sales aren't replacing the brick and mortar at the rate internet usage increases, and the brick and mortar isn't doing so hot either.

[live love laugh]

11. "...shoppers...who seem to be procrastinating even more than a year ago..."

:eyes:

How about them actually telling the truth and reporting facts for once? Like the fact that sales are down, people aren't buying--period. Instead they try to lipstick the pig with the "procrastination" angle.

There are no shoppers procrastinating. There are no shoppers. They are not going to materialize. This is a full blown re/depression and it's only going to get worse.

[dysfunctional press]

15. actually- i've been procrastinating...

i have yet to buy the presents i need for 8 different people.

but then, i ALWAYS procrastinate- i'll decide what i'm getting each each person, then probably on december 23 or 24th make one run to the mall, or hopefully one store where i can get it all, but that NEVER happens.

but- i do put a fair amount of thought into each gift, and it's usually fairly creative, and generally well received. and i don't do gift cards.

[libodem]

16. Oh, well we are now the poor little match girls,

of the world, looking longingly into the shop windows, while the Europeans, come over with their pounds and euros, and snap up the bargains, with double the worth of a dollar. Bush's pact with the Saudis, to take our freedoms and our economy is giving Osama a big woody. First they conspire to bring down the WTC for them and now Bush fulfills his end by making the dollar worthless, to punish the uppity Americans' for out standard of living. Guess we are being shown! Hope the Europeans can make up the lost shopping revenue.