Posted on 12/25/2007 9:23:24 AM PST by Marie2
NEW YORK - Just weeks ago, the holiday shopping season seemed headed for disaster. But in the waning hours before Christmas, the nation's retailers got their wish — a last-minute surge of shopping that helped meet their modest sales goals, according to data released late Monday by research firm ShopperTrak RCT Corp. ADVERTISEMENT
And with post-Christmas shopping to come, some malls and stores were downright optimistic.
While consumers jammed stores at the start of the season in search of discounts and hot items such as Nintendo Co.'s Wii game console, a challenging economy prompted them to hold out until the end for bigger discounts.
An extra full weekend before Christmas also caused shoppers to procrastinate. In fact, Christmas Eve is expected to be a bigger shopping day than in past years because many employers gave workers the day off, with the holiday falling on Tuesday.
"I'm trying to get some deals, seeing what they got out. The sales are better later on. And the stores aren't so packed right now," said Tina Fields, who was at the Circle Centre Mall in Indianapolis early on Monday morning. Her best bargain was a shirt from Aeropostale Inc. she bought for $5. Others like Alex Allen of Boston had postponed shopping because of lack of time.
"I've been working a lot," said Allen, who took advantage of the 7 a.m. opening at a local Target Corp. store to get toys for his three grandchildren before the largest crowds came later in the day.
The spree defied fears that a deepening housing slump, escalating credit crisis and higher gas and food prices would turn shoppers into Grinches — even in the end.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Like, ok, the goals were met, but they were MODEST, so our economy is still awful!
I could not park at our local mall yesterday. The place was packed out. I needed to get some milk and eggs, but I gave up and went home.
SEE! Even Freepers aren't shopping.
Sarcasm off.
I hate these a-holes with a passion.
Another surge works. Yet another surge of denial from the MSM. Is there a pattern of behavior here?
ping
OMGSTFULOL
Every year of a Republican administration the treasonous media trots out the same predictions of Christmas’ sales doom. And every year they are wrong.
This is the same as their assessment of every Republican President being a moron while every Democrat President is a sublime genius.
These rags are not only blatant propaganda for the liberal/socialist/communist/Democrat totalitarians; but they are transparent propaganda rags!
Don’t you read the news? The economy is in complete shambles. No one can buy a home or pay their mortgage, all toys are tainted with lead, and foreigners are taking over all US companies. It’s all Bush’s fault, or so I read.
Reflected by their declining circulation outside the innah citay.
Every day they get funnier and funnier. It must be hell to be a liberal/socialist in the United States. IMHO
Hear, hear!
My wife is the night manager at one of our local Super Wal-Marts. Her store was budgeted to do 158K/day for the 4 days leading up to Christmas. They did 300K+, 400K+, 400K+ the first three days. She does not know what they did yesterday because the store closed at 6pm and she did not have to work. This is in a county with a population of 78K-80K population with two Super Wal-Marts. She does not know what the other store did.
Though'cha could.
SARCASM with extreme prejudice.
My wife says that she is completely wore out because of those modest increases in sales! She can’t wait to go to work tonight and find out she and her team have to restock an entire store and have the store ready for reopening at 6am tomorrow. Christmas Eve sales usually wipe out any remaining items.
You buy milk and eggs at the mall?
“Easy enough, I suppose, to proclaim the season disappointing when online sales (which the article says were up 19%) are excluded.”
I did all my shopping on line, so it wasn’t included in the sales figures. I also bought several gift cards to local shops, which won’t be counted until they are spent. These early figures are pretty unreliable when they don’t count these newer ways to shop.
MERRY CHRISTMAS my FRiend...
“You buy milk and eggs at the mall?”
Yeah, my local grocery is there. Also, a Trader Joe’s.
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