Highland Park, NJ —Despite the doom and gloom surrounding retail businesses nationwide, the borough's downtown businesses did not see a dip in holiday sales. Instead, revenues for local merchants have been holding steady or increasing compared to previous years.
Sheryl Magaziner of Centerpiece, a gift store on Main Street, said sales were up more than 10 percent over last year's holiday season, despite the dire sales predictions being made by financial pundits.
"It's not like we haven't had to make some adjustments because of the economy, but it's not as bad as they make it seem when you turn on the news," Magaziner said. Read more...
New York -- Shoppers are getting used to those 75 percent off sale signs, and that's bad news for merchants who worry they will also have to quickly slash prices on spring goods to attract customers.
Anxieties about how rampant discounts have affected shoppers' psyches and stores' profits are running high ahead of expected dismal December sales figures on Thursday. The holiday season is anticipated to be the worst in decades.
Already, retailers including Bebe Stores Inc. and J.Crew Group Inc. are cutting prices on selected spring styles to lure sale-savvy shoppers. Read more...
If you run the kind of business where customers enjoy a therapeutic massage or get excited at the sight of a rawhide chew toy, you may not have fared too badly this Christmas season.
But if your livelihood depended on selling music CDs or minerals and crystals, you are probably singing a different tune.
Customer traffic during Christmas week fell 4.9 percent nationally this year compared to 2007, according to ShopperTrak, a Chicago-based research company that tracks retail sales. While final figures won't be ready until the middle of the month, preliminary indications are 16 percent fewer shoppers went to stores and malls during the just-completed holiday season, and that retail sales were down some 2.3 percent, the company reported. Read more...
Retail sales for most Fulton businesses were up this year during the traditional holiday season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, a Fulton Sun survey reveals.
Many retailers were surprised by the strength of sales because of so much talk on the national level about a recent decline in the economy.
On Friday it was reported that Americans spent much less on gifts this season than they did last year, according to SpendingPulse, a division of MasterCard Advisors. Retail sales dropped between 5.5 percent and 8 percent compared with last year, the data showed, or between 2 percent and 4 percent after stripping out auto and gas sales. Read more...
Montpelier, VT – Like the elves in the North Pole, there were a number of late nights for Doug Bragg and his cohorts at Bragg Farm this holiday season.
"The last two weeks, it's really gangbusters," said Bragg earlier this month about the holiday frenzy at the Bragg Farm Sugarhouse and Gift Shop. "As a result we're staying here late at night, getting our packing done… Mail orders are up some. Everything's up a little bit."
For seven generations, Bragg's family has been maple sugaring in Vermont, but its expansion into the tourist trade is more recent. The farm he runs with his wife, Barb, is located on Route 14, about a mile north from the intersection with Route 2. To showcase their wares, the couple built a gift shop in 1991 and added onto it three years later. Now, there is a canning room, and a handsome post and beam barn was recently added at the 50-acre farm. Read more...
Traditionally, Dec. 26 has been a day to return gifts that didn’t fit or weren’t to the recipient’s taste. But gift cards are turning the day into a shopping bonanza similar to Black Friday.
“The traffic is comparable,” said Chris Bastien, director of mall marketing at Waterford’s Crystal Mall, surveying a bustling sea of shoppers. “On Black Friday, you shop for others. Today, you shop for yourself.”
Gift cards are a big reason for that, he confirmed.
“Many people are here spending gift cards,” Bastien said. “It keeps our holiday sales momentum going.” Read more...
Washington, DC – With five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, the holidays are sneaking up on shoppers more than usual. According to NRF’s 2008 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, the average person had completed 47.1 percent of their holiday shopping by the second week of December, about ten percent less than the 52.6 percent average completed by this time last year.
The survey also found that over 41 million people have not started holiday shopping, with the biggest procrastinators being men (20.7% haven’t started) and 35-44 year-olds (20.9%). Only eight percent of shoppers say they have completely finished their shopping. Read more...
Christmas is a big deal for Lin Hanzelko, who owns a specialty toy shop in Lake Mary. But this year, she stocked fewer items at her store, Timmy's Toy Chest, not knowing if the jittery economy would scare away some of her usual holiday shoppers.
To her surprise, Hanzelko has already placed reorders for high-ticket items such as Playmobil play sets, which can retail for more than $100. And although shoppers are holding off a little longer than normal in hopes of deals, sales last month were on par with last year.
"When times are tough, mom and dad might forgo each other, but Santa Claus still comes," Hanzelko said. "People are still looking for the same amount of presents under that tree." Read more...
Milwaukee (AP) -- The clock is winding down on what could be one of the worst holiday shopping seasons in decades and recession-hit shoppers are finally starting to feel some pressure to spend.
But toy stores, electronic outlets and clothing boutiques are also under pressure to get shoppers to loosen their purse strings by offering steep discounts, analysts and retailers say.
There is now just one full shopping weekend left before Christmas in a holiday season marked by recession and consumers worried about their slumping investments, dire economic news and fragile job security. Read more...
Washington, DC – While shoppers were out and about Black Friday weekend, they kept their pennies to themselves the rest of the month with November retail sales showing continued consumer restraint. According to the National Retail Federation, retail industry sales for November (which exclude automobiles, gas stations, and restaurants) increased 0.6 percent seasonally adjusted from October and decreased 2.0 percent unadjusted year-over-year. Industry related month-to-month sales saw the first increase in four months. Read more...
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