Weakest holiday season in years

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: CNNMoney

Many stores suffer big sales misses in December, but Wal-Mart and Costco benefit from cash-strapped consumers shopping for discounts.
By Parija B. Kavilanz, CNNMoney.com senior writer
January 10 2008

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Retailers reported deep declines in their December sales Thursday, reflecting a 2007 holiday shopping season that is turning out to be one of the weakest in years. "These numbers are bad because consumers are clearly seeing some pain here," Ken Perkins, president of sales tracker Retail Metrics, said.

According to Perkins, the holiday season started off strong as shoppers lapped up juicy discounts on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving which traditionally marks the start of the November-December gift-buying marathon which can account for as much as half of retailers' annual profits and sales. "But then there was a three-week lull after that. The early shopping momentum didn't carry through the rest of the (holiday season)," Perkins said.

Perkins, who tracks same-store sales at 43 retail chains, said combined November-December sales rose 1.7 percent, their weakest gain since 2002.

In the overall retail sector, Thomson Financial, which also compares monthly results at 43 of the nation's largest retail chains based on analysts' estimates, said total December same-store sales rose just 0.5 percent compared to its revised estimate for a 0.7 percent gain. That's much weaker than the 3.3 percent gain for the same period in 2006. Same-store sales reflects sales at stores open at least a year and is a key measure of performance in the retail sector.

The firm said 27 retailers missed their December sales estimate, 14 beat and 2 retailers met forecasts....

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/10/news/economy/retail_sales/index.htm?postversion=2008011011?cnn=yes

[Fovea]

1. The war on Christmas is over

Christmas lost.

Watch for a strong pretzeldent's day promotion.
They will be selling tiny sacks of BS.

Seriously, I predict a virtual apotheosis of Valentine's day.

[Tesha]

24. Yes, but there'll be ten pounds in those "Five pound" bags.

> They will be selling tiny sacks of BS.

Yes, but as part of the special deal, there'll be ten pounds
in every one of those "Five pound" bags!

Tesha

[napi21]

2. Is that supposed to suprise anyone? With all the job losses,

people having to take paycuts in new jobs, food, gasoline & utilities all up dramatically, what idiot really believed Cristmas sales were going to be up? Where the hell did they think the $$ was going to come from?

[notadmblnd]

4. the rich

the all doing, all deserving rich folk are going to keep the economy going all by themselves.:sarcasm:

[Kittycat]

9. Our wal-mart salaries and dropping prices

:sarcasm:

[laylah]

17. My children

are now 26 and 23. For the VERY first time in their lives, they did not get the traditional ornament. What they did get was gotten via "HiPoints" thanks to Harris Poll. It was beyond humiliating! :cry:

[OhioChick]

3. No Jobs, No Money

Equal no Shopping.

[DaveJ]

5. My guess is technogadgets are taking over the gift market

Most traditional stores are not great at selling them, and people are able to get them online in greater numbers. Walk-in stores can anticipate selling more commodities and fewer gifts. Again, that's just my guess.

[MissB]

10. I bought three technogadgets from Costco this year.

I have three family members (husband, two kids).

I didn't shop at the mall. There really isn't anything there except fuzzy slippers and other useless cack.

[Jimbo S]

6. I guess it's time for another tax cut

So the wealthy can spend more and have it trickle down.

:sarcasm:

[onehandle]

7. Re-ces-sion. nt

[mother earth]

8. This is because I wasn't shopping.

Seriously...I really put a damper on the situation.

I'm the face of the disappearing middle class shopper, what can I say?

[bpeale]

11. i didn't participate & encouraged my children not to participate either

they took my advice.

amount spent on Christmas at my house? $0.00

[ClayZ]

13. If it was not GREEN, handmade or 2nd hand,

We did not buy it!

http://www.localharvest.org/



Buy Local!

Buy Handmade!

WooooHooooo! K and R

[eowyn_of_rohan]

23. I gave "experiences" this year, such as theater and downhill ski tickets

....only shopped for 10% of my gifts in stores, avoiding all things from China, and NOT at Walmart

[robbedvoter]

12. It's the damn welfare programs straining the economy I tells ya! Out with them

[workinclasszero]

14. Grr...

WTH do they expect?

Gas through the roof, housing collapse, food prices shooting up, people going into virtual lifetime debt to go to collage, people working two and even three jobs to scrape by on, health care....on and on and on!

Its the capitalists dream, *'s ownership society people! Own your poverty! If you are not rich, its YOUR FAULT!!

We are all supposed to crawl into the nearest ditch and die, don't cha know? The middle-class die and Pills Limpballs and his ilk inherit the world!

Get with the program people!:sarcasm:

:rant: /off

[harmonicon]

15. Is anyone surprised? We's poor!

I bought one Christmas gift total. It was from Ebay, and less than $50. My parents bought me a plane ticket. My girlfriend bought me a sweater. Big holiday season here.

[rodeodance]

16. this would only surprize the WH/bush---IF he read it

[and-justice-for-all]

18. Yeah, sorry 'bout that, my bad...

I didnt buy shit this year...Ha!

[LibertyLover]

19. This year we bought a few toys for our 5 yo daughter so that there

was something under the tree for her. I bought my husband a couple of inexpensive doohickies for his model train set, roughly $30 and he gave me a pair of slippers at $19.95 and a tree ornament. I gave my stepdaughter some things for her house - new dishpan, detergent, fun rubber gloves. That's what she wanted. We did splurge and give her a DVD that she had asked for, at $14.95. I have a number of cousins with whom we exchange gifts each year and I didn't know what to do. We all have so much "stuff" that giving more, especially this year with our money so tight, just went against my grain, so instead of "stuff", I bought shares in a llama from Heifer International. They loved it. We did very little this year to contribute to any store's bottom line and frankly even if our financial situation ever improves, I'm still going to handle holiday giving that way.

[Sherman A1]

21. I worked on both sides of the family

to cut out as much as I could for the adults. On the wife's side the adult exchange was shifted into a family donation to charity (it still has it's quirky aspects as no one really remembers what we are doing until the week before Christmas, but at least we are not handing each other $15.00 gift cards). On my side, we do a few small gifts and a charity donation as well. Did most of the shopping for the various nieces & nephews while on vacation, picked up some end of season t-shirts and such along the NC Outer Banks. Gave them something different and made the holiday shopping next to none.

The Wife and I kept looking at the ads to see if anything looked interesting and would have bought something had it appealed to us, but frankly the advertising this year was just dumb.



:popcorn:

[tex-wyo-dem]

20. I read somewhere that one of the only sectors to do welll...

Was high end retail; you know, hight-end department stores like Saks and designer boutique stores. No big surprise as the bushie economy has been a windfall for the wealthy class leaving a large part of the rest of us to put our pennies together to buy cheap, lead paint-laden chinese toys for our kids from wal-mart.

[tom_paine]

22. "Who could have foreseen that squashing the middle class would result in people spending less $$$?"

:rofl:

[spinbaby]

25. We actually spent a lot

We gave a tank of heating oil and a car repair.