HO HO HO some Christmas shopping sales data

[AllentownJake]

Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. retailers used extra promotions and extended hours to draw procrastinators and shoppers delayed by the East Coast snowstorm in the final stretch before Christmas.

Target Corp. extended its hours to midnight Dec. 21 through yesterday. Borders Group Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Toys “R” Us Inc. also kept stores open longer. Best Buy Co. offered some DVDs for half off and Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc., a men’s clothing chain, deepened discounts to at least 50 percent.

“We didn’t intend to do everything, and now we’re doing everything,” Jos. A. Bank Chief Executive Officer Neal Black, 54, said Dec. 22 by telephone from the company’s Hampstead, Maryland, headquarters. “We’ll be slugging right down to the last minute.”

Sales will be compressed into the final days before Christmas, said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group Inc. The snowstorm disrupted the Saturday before Dec. 25. Last year, that was the second-biggest shopping day after Black Friday, the day after U.S. Thanksgiving. Shoppers already had procrastinated more than in recent seasons.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a61n83Ex56Uo&pos=11

[ProSense]

1. You may be surprised

The stores along the east coast were packed. Even in VA, where the snow dumped up to two feet.

[AllentownJake]

3. I've been paying attention to the psychological game this year

At the beginning of December, they were saying that they weren't going to do discounts because they ordered less inventory this year, so it won't be like last year and not to expect discounts after Christmas either. This last week, they've been discounting like fucking mad.

I'll be able to tell you what's going on when I see the ads for sales this weekend, which I haven't seen yet because I'm watching my brother (autistic). If they are ridiculous and plenty



:nuke:

[HughMoran]

4. Best buy had the "three laptops" ad, but didn't order extra inventory.

Wow, was that frustrating. If you wanted a Gateway or a Dell you were all set. Popular models of the more reliable Toshiba or Asus models? Not so much. They literally had "out of stock" tags on 50% of their laptops.

[AllentownJake]

5. Someone I read said there is going to be a more emphasis on quality

People are going to be tight with their money so if you are making a product you better make a good one because when people do spend, they want to make sure they aren't replacing it.

[HughMoran]

14. It was a much bigger consideration in my purchase this time

My oldest daughter's laptop was bought based on on customizable covers and the fact that I've had good luck with the Dell "XPS" models. This year I spent some time reading about the follow on model when looking to purchase a similar laptop for my youngest girl. "Would make a good paperweight" was the jist of what I read. A few years back you couldn't get me within 10' of a Toshiba laptop, now they have good reliability ratings. Toshiba's were all sold out, so I settled for a middler HP unit. Quality was important in my decision, unfortunately availability played a roll too. Fortunately the salesman saw my GF's Obama T-Shirt and said "nice T-shirt" and we got into quite a conversation about people he's campaigned for and some of the idiots who talk about things Beck says (we all did a collective facepalm.) He campaigned for Coakley in Mass. I bought a laptop from him - his politics actually made me trust what he said more (well, that and he was (coincidentally) the same fellow that sold my GF her laptop.

[AllentownJake]

15. My Mom bought a Car this year from a guy who worked on the campaign

I gave her shit about getting a Huyundai but half the parts and the assembly was done in the US. It had a better warranty and sales discount than the Ford and she wouldn't look at GM because she bought it when they were closing dealerships.

[AllentownJake]

7. Just peeked at Best Buy's website

Looks like they did ok this year, they look much better than Macy's and other mall based retailers look by just doing my quick peak. I never had any worries about Best Buy this year, from the two in my area the traffic was ok in the beginning of December and normal the week before Christmas, also their last week of sales weren't really that big in comparison to what other retailers were doing.

I think Wal-Mart did ok as well. Not great, but ok. Target is having some trouble as is Penny's, Gap co stores, Abercrombie.

It looks like the mall retailers will take the biggest hits.

[bertman]

10. "Peek". But I'll bet they wished their sales had peaked.

Merry Christmas Sales Season, Jake!!

:hi:

[AllentownJake]

12. Math was always my better subject

lol never did good with spelling or writing.

[bertman]

13. Exact opposite for me. After we got through algebra and plane geometry my brain froze.

[ProSense]

8. They're rebounding

November 2008: Retail Sales Are Weakest in 35 Years






November 2009: U.S. Retail Sales Rose 1.3% in November, Exceeding Forecasts

[AllentownJake]

9. Advance estimates

Could be right could be wrong, they generally tend to err on the side of happy news.

Before you get all pissy. GDP is all I have to say.

[onethatcares]

2. here's the data from onethatcares' house

we made a budget and stuck to it. Bought for 1 pair of parents, 4 kids, 4 grandkids and each other without using a credit card at all. Everything was paid for cash. It's amazing what you can get and how you set limits when you're spending only what's in your pocket.

This is the first year in many that there will be no credit card bill arriving in January to keep the giving going out the door.

Man, it feels good.

[Thickasabrick]

6. +1 Good for you. Excellent goal for the rest of us. nt

[bertman]

11. We tried to do that for my family's christmas, but we are so infected with the disease that

we couldn't help ourselves.

Yes, I blame myself.

[onethatcares]

16. hang in there and keep going for it.

trust me, it wasn't easy. There were so many things I thought would look good, feel good, make some one else happy that I just had to walk away at times.

It's kinda like quitting smoking. Set the limits, set the goal, if you don't get there on the first try, start again.

I also spent the year talking to myself about how much I hate the credit card side of the banking industry and how much I have to work to pay their blood charge.

Once I realized that 10.00 out of every 100.00 I paid was just toilet paper, it sunk in very fast, and to make that 10.00 I had to work harder than I want to.

Good luck. and don't beat yourself up over it.

Peace

[bertman]

17. Thanks for the words of encouragement. We DID reduce our spending quite a bit this year.

We'll do even better next year.