Posted on 12/27/2013 3:51:32 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
U.S. retail sales rose 3.5 percent during the holiday season this year, helped by deep discounts at malls and purchases of children’s apparel and jewelry, MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse said.
Sales of holiday-related categories, such as clothing, electronics and luxury goods, rose 2.3 percent from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24 compared with a year earlier, the research firm said Thursday. SpendingPulse tracks total U.S. sales at stores and online via all payment forms.
Falling store traffic in recent weeks and uneven demand, especially for apparel, spurred chains to risk earnings by pouring on the discounts to generate sales. Retailers including Gap were offering as much as 75 percent off and some, including Macy’s and Kohl’s, were keeping stores open around the clock starting Dec. 20.
“You are seeing, ‘It’s OK for me to go out and spend,’ ” Sarah Quinlan, a senior vice president at MasterCard Advisors, said in a phone interview Thursday. “That being said, they are still being cautious, and they are picking their retailers. It is not hot 2006-2007 spending we are seeing.”
Sales were strongest in jewelry and children’s apparel, while sales of electronics and luxury items excluding jewelry were about the same as the same period last year, SpendingPulse said. Sales of women’s and men’s apparel fell from last year, the researcher said.
The SpendingPulse data largely tracked researchers’ expectations for the holiday season. The National Retail Federation reiterated on Dec. 12 its prediction that total sales will rise 3.9 percent in November and December, more than the 3.5 percent gain a year ago. Chicago-based researcher ShopperTrak has said holiday purchases will rise 2.4 percent, the smallest gain since 2009.
The International Council of Shopping Centers said Dec. 24 that sales at retailers’ stores open at least a year climbed 2.7 percent in the week ending Dec. 21 from a year earlier. The New York trade group maintained its projection that retailers will report comparable-store sales increases of 3 percent to 4 percent for December when they issue their latest monthly reports.
At least this headline tells the truth somewhat--any increase in sales is more due to panicked retailers undercutting their own profit goals in an effort to shrink inventory.
Retail sales were disastrous. Stores are dumping inventory before people start getting those unaffordable obamacare bills and others go bankrupt because they registered and paid, but were never actually covered because the government website doesn’t work.
Otoh, I’m seeing some amazing discounts on furs and other luxury goodies I would never pay full price for. I feel like “Looter” guy....
Exactly, Let’s find some segment where the sales are up, but is that in merchandise count or in dollar value? I would wager they had to keep running the numbers to find that Jewelry and kids clothing, bought at rock bottom profit in dollars and not in margin is supposed to save the day?
The media will never report the real numbers that are going to be that this season was a profit margin loser. I drive by several “Big Box” stores daily and the parking lots have been no better than a regular days capacity which is very low.
My wife went to Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve and no problem parking where she normally would, and that was the same for the entire season. She went to a mall yesterday and again, the same thing. I told her that nobody got any crap they had to take back.
I do remember when one had to play musical parking spaces and even getting close to a mall was an achievement.
“Otoh, I’m seeing some amazing discounts on furs and other luxury goodies I would never pay full price for. I feel like “Looter” guy...”
Those items are becoming a thing of the past in the US (except for the 1%); we are already seeing sales of just about everything increase overseas as Asia develops a middle class while we lose ours.
I agree; my wife and I were in a mall in northern NJ this past Saturday (for an Apple emergency - no way we would have been there otherwise), and I was pleasantly surprised that the lot really wasn’t any different than other Saturdays (this mall gets a lot of NYC shoppers).
I think another thing that must transform Christmas shopping is gift cards; these are increasingly being given to children as well as adults (because it is so hard to keep track of which books/games/clothing children have or want), and they would all be used afterwards.
A friend asked if I thought less people were decorating their homes for Christmas; I agreed, and pointed out that the increased number of Asians (from the subcontinent) probably played a role in that. Not only are these people not Christian, but they are frugal as well.
My wife and I went to wal-mart on early Christmas eve and one thing we noticed was that the store was fully stocked. And that includes the Christmas decoration section.
Odd.
NPR said sales were up from last year. ;-)
With these discounts, one can only guess at how low the margins have been. I doubt the retailers are even covering their direct cost of most discounted items. Net margins are probably approaching negative double digits.
Ofcourse, what would the MSM know about how a business is run, they support Obamacare.
I completely agree. When we hit Feb-Mar this year there will be a huge number of people screaming “what happened to all my money”. The huge sucking sound won’t be just jobs leaving our country, it will be all the disposable income being stolen by obamacare.
That is strange; I should probably buy another artificial tree (mine is 15+ years old, and looking every bit of them). Our Wal-Mart is packed all the time (you have to go early, to miss the gibsmedats), but many of those shopping are buying staples - cheap food and clothing (and other stores are feeling the loss of those customers). We’ve lost a Foodtown and a Pathmark, as well as many small businesses, just as many other areas have.
They must be including gift cards as “sales”, though they are actually very different. They are future sales, and the store issuing the card basically carries a liability on its books until the cards are used/merchandise is bought. For the items you describe (Christmas decorations), I don’t see many people buying them in the weeks after Christmas.
Local jewelry stores are having sales of, “up to 70% off”, of course they do that every year.
They must have a huge profit margin to begin with, to discount items that much. I can assure you they aren’t operating at a loss, even with 70% discounts.
I've noticed that where I live too.
Yeah push dales of units up but kills the bottom line - profit. Just the way Marxists and socialists like it.
Yeah push the number of units sold up but kills the bottom line - profit. Just the way Marxists and socialists like it.
For the sake of the mid-term elections, I hope you’re right in regards to the costs of ObamaCare (though I’d imagine additional steps will be taken to delay the punch).
Even without ObamaCare, things have been bad for so long people are becoming accustomed to it. Young people today have never known gasoline at $1 per gallon, or the idea of actually saving money (I work with some that are constantly monitoring their bank accounts to prevent overdrafts). Heck, even jobs are unknown to many of them. Young people I do see working today are usually in low-paying jobs (which are better than none) that probably don’t pay for much more than a phone bill and car insurance (rents/mortgages are out of the questions).
Very eerie...
What state/region? I’m in northern NJ, where we are inundated with “replacement Americans”.
Christmas decorations are not an annual expense; they last for years, so I don’t think this is an economic thing (unless the homes are foreclosed/empty). I think it is demographic.
My wife bought several Lenox china pieces yesterday for presents next year. She had $100 worth of points she used and came home with a receipt that showed the regular price of everything to be about $575. The bottom line on the receipt was $54.
In addition to supporting me totally in my hobby turned business which is tied directly to pro and semi pro racing, she loves football too!
I’ve doing seasonal work at a local national Department Store.At the last moment, they extended the hours of a big sale event last week because it’s the only big movement of merchandise they’ve had all season.
Yesterday (the 26th), the management came around to employees and asked if they wanted to go home an hour or two early because “we have to cut back hours”.
Yeah, sounds like things are really great/
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