Posted on 01/10/2014 8:26:59 AM PST by Hojczyk
One of retailers’ big problems during the holiday season was lower traffic, as consumers increasingly used their mobile devices to conduct advance research and figure out exactly where they wanted to go, reducing the average shopping trip to a 3- or 3½-store excursion from 5 stores in 2007, ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin told MarketWatch.
Meanwhile, winter storms and icy weather throughout December also have hurt store traffic and curtailed store hours. The holiday season also was hurt because 2013 had six fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“A shortened holiday shopping season, coupled with the most promotional retailing environment in five years, sluggish consumer spending, stagnant wage growth, multiple winter storms and a shift toward big ticket durables put intense pressure on retail margins and led to uninspiring holiday sales results,” said Ken Perkins of Retail Metrics.
Total December same-store sales rose 3.6%, beating expectations of a 2.6% increase, only after Costco delivered a much-better-than-expected 5% U.S. comparable-store-sales gain, according to Retail Metrics. In contrast to many of its retail counterparts, Costco COST -1.39% reported a 4% gain in comparable traffic.
“The consistency of Costco’s comp growth continues to impress as many other retailers have indicated that economic and competitive pressures have resulted in softer sales performance in the holiday period,” said William Blair analyst Mark Miller. “We believe that both the strength and consistency of Costco’s performance are aided by its relatively low e-commerce risk profile relative to peers.”
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.marketwatch.com ...
Maybe people are just tired of Christmas being a greedfest, and are buying fewer presents ...
Maybe a reminder is in order: the birth of Mankind’s Savior is not celebrated as an excuse to inflate sales at retail establishments.
Maybe people are just tired of Christmas being a greedfest, and are buying fewer presents ...
That happened to us about 10 years ago and we have bought less and less each year. This year was the worst year for me though. Did absolutely 0 Christmas shopping. Bought cards at the Dollar Store and stuck cash in them. I loved it!
Many malls today have become magnets for "youths" who drive shoppers with money away. In efforts to be politically correct, many malls have implemented curfews for all teens. Of course, this adversely impacts those law-abiding teens and their discretionary income that teen-themed outlets covet.
Costco is doing well because you have to have a paid membership to shop there. Maybe malls should start charging admission?
Many malls today have become magnets for "youths" who drive shoppers with money away. In efforts to be politically correct, many malls have implemented curfews for all teens. Of course, this adversely impacts those law-abiding teens and their discretionary income that teen-themed outlets covet.
Costco is doing well because you have to have a paid membership to shop there. Maybe malls should start charging admission?
This has been building for me, but especially this year I have become repulsed by the all-out hedonistic greedfest that Christmas has turned into. It is obscene.
The Left (with help) wants Christmaas stipped of anything related to Christ and want it replaced with an orgy of self gratification. They have taken what was once true and good and exchanged it for something that is now hollow and ugly.
You don’t got disposable income as a teen if you can’t find a job because all the jobs you would be doing are being filled by adults who should have moved up the chain but instead are falling back down it because the economy has been ignored for 1/2 a decade to pass obamacare and institutionalize socialism into the american experience.
Yes Poor Obama, when Bush was president the weather was always bright and sunny in December and Christmas always fell on a Sunday.
But then those evil racist Teabaggers because they didn't want a Black Man to succeed changed the calendar so Christmas doesn't always fall on the same day of the week.
Uh-huh. Our on-line retail business profit was off about 25%.
The tradition of giving presents at Christmas time has two sources. One is an imitation of the gifts the “Three Kings” brought to honor the Holy Infant. The other is to remind us of the incredible gift God Himself gave us on that still night in Bethlehem.
Nowhere are those noble sentiments reflected in the orgy of materialism and greed promoted by retailers. They rub their hands gleefully all year long waiting for “the Holiday Shopping Season” to top off their lagging sales. That’s all Christmas means to them.
The beauty and splendor of the season is lost amid a clutter of cheesy junk and profane marketing.
The economy is missing my dollars. I couldn’t be bothered to send out the zero cost homemade gifts I’d made. Just wasn’t into the gifting and the relatives weren’t either (unless an old bottle of hot sauce that sis brought over that had been sitting in her pantry forever counts). I didn’t even grocery shop and haven’t since the Monday before Thanksgiving. Used some of the frozen Christmas ham pickings in a pot of beans these last freezing days, yum.
Some percent of the lost sales were in November because the first night of Hanukkah was before Thanksgiving this year. Doubt it can explain the entire drop, possibly not even most of it. Just to cite one confounding factor that is conveniently ignored
When department stores run TV ads with singing genitals, it is time to change our behavior
Not to mention all the impoverished immigrants we allow in these days. Doesn’t matter if they are legal or illegal. They take the lawn mowing and house painting jobs etc teens and college students (in the summer) would have available to them. We take in zillions of impoverished legal immigrants and refugees these days. We are the flop house of the world and the Republicans are about to help the Democrats make it worse.
I rest my case.
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