Early holiday shopping has merchants optimistic

[TomCADem]

Source: CNN

The nation's merchants -- both in stores and online -- appeared pleased with the first results from the holiday shopping weekend that was kicked off in the predawn darkness of Black Friday and continued early Saturday.

Taubman Centers -- which operates such malls as the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Ill., and the Stamford Town Center in Connecticut -- said a majority of its centers reported year-over-year sales increases Friday, with steady traffic into the evening hours.

"The hot categories throughout the evening included apparel, electronics, shoes and boots, and bath and beauty predominantly," said Karen Mac Donald, Taubman's communications director, in an e-mail.

J.C. Penney said Saturday that sales were strong at stores across the country on Black Friday. Top sellers included gemstone and gold jewelry, luggage sets, women's cashmere-blend pea coats and a device that projects TV images onto a blank wall.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/28/news/economy/holiday_shopping_saturday/

[Atman]

1. Ah, the annual "GOOD NEWS! GO SHOPPING!" bullshit press-releases begin

In this case, a mall owner is saying all is well, come shopping. Forgive me I withhold my cheering until after the downward-revised reports come out in a week or two.

.

[bitchkitty]

2. I live next to a shopping center with

Borders, Bed Bath Beyond, Ulta 3, Ann Taylor, stores like that. Yesterday they were crowded, but it wasn't crowded for black Friday.

[hobbit709]

5. Yep. We've seen this story before

[EFerrari]

6. Monday.

I'm right there with you. It's going to be really ugly, imho.

[fascisthunter]

7. all is well as long as they make money

the World could fall apart around them, and they still focus on on aspect of life itself. Making someone above them richer and hoper they go along for that ride and benefit. It really is pathetic, hopefully more and more folks will snap out of it.

[unabelladonna]

12. unfortunately, the mind numbed robots

have been programmed to feel guilty if their offspring doesn't get the $100 toy he/she so deserves. this is the most consumer oriented country in the world. our economy isn't based on "making" things it's geared around selling things made elsewhere to ourselves. the only employment to be found is low paying retail...sad.

[timeforpeace]

3. Never saw a post-Black Friday news article that reported bad sales.

[Sherman A1]

14. I saw one today on the front page of the local paper

[Bonhomme Richard]

4. Crazy. I found out the upscale mall my son works at charges....

for parking. And the bitch is that they charge mall employees $9.00/day for parking. The greed amazes me.

[onethatcares]

8. are they putting it on the plastic or paying cash?

if it's the plastic, we're gonna see a whole lot more defaulting credit card holders next year, or we're gonna see a bunch of happy credit card issuers raising rates to 28.99 per cent.

If it's cash, why are people going hungry?

[AllentownJake]

9. No one will know what is going on till after Christmas

Stores never report bad news during Christmas.

[TwixVoy]

10. Yup when I was in Target management back in Q4 2008

Yup when I was in Target management back in Q4 2008 the media was reporting all was going well.... yet when I checked our national sales numbers every day at work they were falling off a cliff.

Too bad I don't have access to that information anymore. Would be VERY interesting to see.

[AllentownJake]

11. It isn't good

Drove around today, malls looked normal, could find parking, both in Allentown and the Poconos. Traffic was no different by the outlets than it is any weekend I visit my brother.

[jwirr]

13. Shouldn't jump to conclusions. The people I know who went shopping

took all the money they had saved for practical Christmas gifts and went shopping on this day but they are now done shopping. It was the only day they can afford to shop so the stores can forget them coming back.