WRAPPING UP CHRISTMAS ’91 : Is This Shopping Shift Here to Stay? : Consumers’ Restraint May Be More Than a Response to Tough Times
The Christmas season of 1991 was a brutal teacher for many of the nation’s retailers, proving in new and painful ways that consumers are looking for practical and less expensive items--a shift in shopping patterns that may be here to stay.
Functional apparel, kitchen items and classic toys landed under the Christmastree while expensive doodads gathered dust on store shelves. Discount and back-to-basic retailers saw sales increases while traditional department stores languished.
Much of the blame lies with the current sluggish economy. But some analysts and consultants say the reasons run deeper, as aging baby boomers concentrate on saving more for their children’s education and for their own retirement.
“It was a pretty dreary Christmas from a retailers’ perspective,” said Carl Steidtmann, vice president and chief economist at Management Horizons, a retail consulting firm. “They went into Christmas with very low expectations and managed not even to meet those.”
The best performers of the year were the sort of work-a-day merchandise that in past years never saw the inside of a gift box.
Everyday clothing for men, women and children led the list, according to retailers. Inexpensive health and beauty items, kitchen products, compact discs and videotapes moved quickly. And home safety items were hot, particularly motion detectors and security lights.
On the toy front, Barbie led the pack again, but several other dolls surged in popularity, such as Water Babies, Baby Alive and Baby Wanna Walk, said Ted Schoenhaus, publisher of Toy & Hobby World magazine.
Other big toys were the Nerf bow and arrow set, a reissue of the original 12-inch G.I. Joe doll, the Scattergories game, any product tied to Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” and “Little Mermaid” movies and the Magnadoodle erasable drawing toy. Although the $200 Super Nintendo did not meet projected sales of 2.5 million units, “they still did very well,” Schoenhaus said.
What these toys have in common is “real play value,” Schoenhaus said. Consumers “aren’t going to buy garbage any more.”
“We’re seeing a new consumer for the ‘90s . . . that is better educated, more sophisticated,” he said. Retailers “are going to have to change to keep that consumer in the store longer.”
Consultant Robert Kahn, who publishes a newsletter called Retailing Today and who is also a Wal-Mart director, believes that the retail blahs have grown because unemployment is a greater threat these days to the kind of middle- and upper-class consumers who traditionally spend big at Christmas.
“As far as this being an indication for future Christmases, if our unemployment rate drops down to 5% again, you’ll see the same kind of Christmas that you used to,” Kahn said.
But consultant Larry Ebel detects a more fundamental shift among shoppers.
“It’s burned-out yuppies that no longer have expendable income,” said Ebel, senior vice president of Retail Planning Associates in Columbus, Ohio. “They’ve already bought the BMW and they’ve already bought the second house. Now their kids are starting private schools and college.
“The whole materialism thing is taking a back seat to practicality and planning and saving,” Ebel said, noting that this year he received such gifts as kitchen products and custom-engraved Post-it notes.
This shift began a few years ago, Steidtmann said. “The poor economy has reinforced that transition and perhaps accelerated it, but it was already happening.”
What Was Hot
Christmas morning, 1991, found a lot of functional, inexpensive presents among the wrappings. Gone were the days of gold-plated toothpick holders and individual tanning booths. Here are some of the big sellers from this holiday season.
* Practical clothing, including jeans, stirrup pants, sweats, sweaters and dress shirts.
* Health and beauty items, particularly cosmetics.
* Home safety items, primarily motion detectors and security lights.
* Compact discs and videotapes.
* Kitchen items, such as Tater Twisters, sandwich makers, waffle irons and glassware.
* Classic toys, including Barbie and a reissue of the 12-inch G.I. Joe.
* Nerf bow and arrow set.
* Anything tied to Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” or “Little Mermaid” movies.
* Water Babies dolls.
