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.
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/
Retailers including Gap were offering as much as 75 percent off
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Not just the GAP , my wife bought all her gifts at the mall this year ,,, all the big name clothing retailers were in the 75% off range and several of the independent shops were even cheaper .. you don’t blow out inventory at or below cost in the Christmas season (and selling at half the Walmart price in a high rent mall is just that) unless you’re planning on closing shop in the new year... and despite the discounts parking was absolutely no problem ,, never more than half the spots filled.. in other years a fight over available spots would have been the norm.. even in recent (post 2008) years...