Greer, SC — While chain store sales across the nation suffered from a dismal holiday shopping season -- the worst since at least 1970, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers -- some local retailers in Greer found themselves with sales that were just as good, if not better than last year’s holiday season.
Tarra Godfrey, co-owner of Chelsea’s Lady Apparel, said her inventory is low because she sold so much in the weeks that led up to Christmas.
"People appreciated our customer service and not having to stand in long lines for gift-wrapping," she said.
Godfrey added that she’s had several customers at her downtown Greer store say they were going to start buying exclusively from local independent retailers instead of big department stores. Read more...
When retailers report December sales on Thursday, the picture won't be pretty.
Sales at stores open at least a year -- a key barometer of retail health -- are expected to show an average decline of 1.1%, according to analysts' estimates for 35 chains compiled by Thomson Reuters. The reports will likely confirm that the 2008 holiday season was the worst for retailers in decades.
Excluding Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which has benefited from a consumer focus on buying necessities as the economy soured, the picture is even grimmer, with December sales falling an average of 6.3%, Thomson Reuters says. Some analysts expect an increase in the rate of gift returns, which could further crimp sales. Read more...
For a year when downtown retailers expected dismal holiday sales, the stockings actually arrived half-full.
They might not have seen the same-size receipts as in 2007, but many downtown merchants and restaurant operators say activity beat their revised outlooks. They credit an increase in downtown activities, smart marketing and new shops and restaurants.
“What happened is many of the residents and many of the people in the city supported the local stores,” said Melissa Waters, a partner at the specialty shop Metronation on Vine Street. “We had several people from both Northern Kentucky and the suburbs who said they were specifically coming downtown to support the local business.” Read more...
Crummy economy? Worse weather?
Local store managers and owners didn't wince.
Many are reporting Christmas season sales that matched or were close to last year's good numbers.
That's not the story across the nation.
Total retail sales, excluding gasoline, dropped about 4 percent in the United States, according to a Holiday report from SpendingPulse, an arm of MasterCard that tracks sales paid for by credit card. That's a scary drop for retailers when holiday sales typically account for 30 percent to 50 percent of a retailer's annual total sales, according to an Associated Press report. Read more...
West Park Mall was bustling with people Saturday.
"You can tell it's busy," said Amy McAllister of Cape Girardeau. "People are parking all the way back to Taco Bell."
McAllister preferred to wait in the car with her stepdaughter, Sierra Sams, 11, while Sierra's father, Brian, made a quick trip to redeem a gift card at EB Games.
"It was nuts in there — people were shoulder to shoulder," Brian Sams said when he returned to the car. "But they were fast, so it was OK." Read more...
Soon after Uniquely Leo's Ltd. opened at 10 a.m. Friday, a man came in with a shopping list from his wife.
That gave store owner Marcelyn Miller a flicker of hope through the gloom of recent weeks. Her downtown Suffolk gift shop hosted an after-Christmas sale as part of continuing efforts to entice reluctant shoppers to spend.
"Right now, for me, it's all about cash flow," Miller said. "I'm just trying to move inventory and generate cash."
Miller and other retailers, small and large, are trying to capitalize on the weekend after Christmas to avoid a weak end to a dismal 2008 holiday shopping season. Some deemed the day after Christmas the "new Black Friday," referring to the retail nickname for the day after Thanksgiving, which typically kicks off a month long spree and symbolically turns stores' balance sheets from red to black. Read more...
I am a student of shopping.
I get my thrill from watching people shop, learning why people shop and discovering how shopping habits affect people and the world around them.
Not surprisingly, the holiday shopping season was a gold mine of information. Now that Christmas has come and gone, here are the top five things I learned about the shopping world this holiday season. Read more...
San Francisco — Feeling the pinch of the economic downturn, some holiday gift-givers are saving money this year by making their own presents or — for those who lack the time or talent — buying handmade gifts from others.
Craft stores, from giant chains like Michaels Stores to small scrapbook supply shops, are reporting that sales are higher compared with the last holiday season, and online marketplaces for handmade goods, like Etsy, are seeing a boom in listings and transactions. Read more...
Harrisonburg, PA - Those looking to wrap up their holiday shopping flocked to Harrisonburg stores Saturday, hoping to find last-minute deals on the final weekend before Christmas.
Parking lots at Harrisonburg Crossing, which includes the Wal-Mart store, and the lot at the Valley Mall and Target were near capacity all day long.
"It's a madhouse," said Carl Campbell, a store manager at Target. He said the Nintendo Wii video game system and GPS devices have been especially popular this holiday season, including on Saturday.
"It's been nonstop since we opened the doors. At about 8:30 a.m., it started picking up and every hour it has been steadily climbing." Read more...
Lanesboro -- Stocked with fashionable women's clothing, fabrics and books this holiday shopping season, Cheryl's Apparel lacks one thing necessary to ring up sales.
The independent retail shop in Lanesboro is short on customers. Owner Cheryl Lamon said she's trying to stay positive but clearly, the economic recession is affecting her business, along with many other retailers regardless of their size.
"We are in very different times," said Lamon who opened the store in 2004 after 22 years operating a garden center. Read more...
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