Shoppers Play Waiting Game With Retailers
As pre-Christmas days dwindle down to a precious few, the holiday buying season appears to be shaping up more or less as expected, observers said Monday, with retailers girding for a last-minute rush and expecting modest sales growth over last year’s figures.
Many shoppers, emboldened by the knowledge that Christmas Eve falls on a prime shopping day--Saturday--seem to be playing chicken with retailers, and merchants are obliging with heavy promotions as the season wanes.
Markdowns are “a benefit of waiting,” said Carl Steidtmann, vice president and chief economist for Management Horizons, a Columbus, Ohio, consulting firm. “The consumer has a long history of waiting them out.”
“People are absolutely looking . . . to stretch the dollar,” said Jane Maxwell, a spokeswoman for Marshalls, an off-price chain.
In general, merchants experienced strong sales in the days right after Thanksgiving, but business sank into “the pits” in early December, said Sandra Shaber, an economist with the Futures Group, a Washington-based forecasting firm. Now promotions have stimulated business again, with apparel retailers faring better than those selling appliances and furniture.
The smart money, observers noted, seems to be on overall fourth-quarter sales gains of 5% to 6% over last year’s period, with inflation wiping out most of the improvement.
‘Spectacular Weekend’
Many retailers say the promotions have been planned and are not of the desperation variety that characterized last year’s season, when retailers with bloated merchandise supplies slashed prices as they battled consumer dread after the stock market crash. But, planned or not, sales appear to be what’s needed to bring in the business this year.
At the Broadway, a one-day sale on Saturday contributed to a “spectacular weekend (that) exceeded our expectations,” said Bill Dombrowski, a spokesman for Carter Hawley Hale Stores, owner of the Broadway chain.
Standout sellers, he said, included moderately priced, bread-and-butter items such as sweaters, turtlenecks, cosmetics, fragrances, fashion jewelry, handbags and even basic Jockey underwear.
The weekend’s chilly, rainy weather helped drive customers into Waldenbooks’ Southern California stores and get them in the gift-buying mood, said Buddy Williams, regional director for the chain’s Southwest U.S. stores. Even so, “I don’t think it’s going to end up being a stellar Christmas,” he said. “What’s hurting the book industry . . . is that there are not real strong best sellers this year.”
Coffee-table books including “Christmas in America” and “Home Planet,” with pictures of Earth taken from space, have been big sellers.
Target, an upscale discount chain, and Mervyn’s, a soft-goods department store, have succeeded with “a strong position on value and quality,” said Kenneth A. Macke, chairman and chief executive of Dayton Hudson Corp., their Minneapolis-based owner.
