Early Data Show Weak Holiday Sales

Wall Street Journal ^ | December 25, 2012, 5:57 p.m. ET. | SHELLY BANJO

[Steelers6]

The annual holiday shop-a-thon drew to a muted close for many retailers, according to preliminary data, reflecting what some experts said was the slowest growth in spending since the 2008 recession.

For the eight weeks from Oct. 28 through Christmas Eve, retail sales for the holidays rose just 0.7% from the year before, according to MasterCard Inc.'s SpendingPulse unit.

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A man with shopping bags sleeps in Macy's in New York on Monday. . After falling 5.5% in 2008, holiday sales rebounded strongly in 2009 and 2010, and rose about 2% last year, according to the company's data, which are based on sales activity in the MasterCard payments network and estimates for all other forms of payment, including cash and checks. The figures exclude restaurants and sales of automobiles, groceries and gasoline.

This year, "it's a lost season," said Michael McNamara, Spending Pulse's vice president of research and analysis. "Sales and volume are about the same as last year, but the growth was marginal."

He and other analysts said a steep sales decline in the mid-Atlantic states that were walloped by superstorm Sandy dragged down the overall tally.

Retail consulting firm Customer Growth Partners said 2012 looks like the worst holiday-shopping season since 2009. Sales rose roughly 2.8%, after a 5.8% jump in 2011, according to its president, Craig Johnson.

[RetiredTexasVet]

For all our neighbors we gave them home grown and home baked Zucchini bread and to some others homemade sweet potato pie. They appreciated that more than any purchased gifts .... wicked bread and pie. If you apply inflation to the given retail sales, they are actually less, much less than the last couple of years. More importantly, the post Christmas returns haven’t started yet. If they are anything like past years, it will drive sales down another couple of percentage points. The MSM administration pimps made a gigantic deal about the great increase in sales, starting out at 8 - 10% increase after Thanksgiving. I didn’t believe it just because of the half empty parking lots at the mall, Walmart, and the other major stores. We ended up buying durable gifts for the family and spent significantly less than in previous years.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Buy American.

:D

[LibLieSlayer]

Same here and double **** the kenyan.

LLS

[1rudeboy]

No more weak holiday sales, right? /s

[Revolting cat!]

I bought socks and a scarf (scarves are coming back!)

[blueyon]

“Buy American. - Stop importing everything.”

I understand what you are saying BUT I now have major reservations with the whole Buy America issue because of UNIONS...I try to check out a company before I buy and if it’s a Union...I say screw them!

[KC_Lion]

Try and Find Made in America"

Checkmate.

[nascarnation]

Next Christmas will be even better with all the low end workers converted to “29ers”

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Well I would be hesitant to buy anything, considering the only thing your money would go to, is keeping Chinese workers employed.

Buy American.

When you buy imports, you only send your money out of America.

That is my point. At this point, almost everything, in almost every store is made in China.

[1rudeboy]

And independent contractors like me, forced to become 29ers.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Nice.

[50mm]

Understood. Merry Christmas!

[LibLieSlayer]

Every so called journolista in America should be deported or worse.

LLS

[1rudeboy]

And that's the simplest of economic concepts that you fail to understand. You would prefer to have weak sales, as long as more American items are bought. Weakness is strength, right? Better to have half of a small pie, than a third of a large one.

[nascarnation]

Private sector unions are a small and quickly shrinking part of the US business sector. They get publicity because 1) most media are unionized, so they promote the union agenda and 2) unions cause a lot of trouble which creates "news"

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Look you and I have pretty much opposite views on imports.

Several decades ago, mine was very much like yours.

My view has changed 180 degrees now, because our trade situation has changed 180 degrees.

Some viewpoints haven’t recognized the massive change in world trade which has happened in the last two decades.

You will.

[1rudeboy]

No, I won’t. I don’t expect the government to come run and protect me from the free market. Because I know that, when it tries, I get screwed. Maybe you’re just getting soft in your old age.

[familyop]

"It just won’t happen....CORPORATE TAXES. We FORCED people out of the states."

Poor lefties. Many of those global corporate idols (buffalo worshipers that they are...oh, excu-u-u-u-se me--"bison") recently spoke against our Second Amendment. Yep. Zoning "laws" in the middle of nowhere against new, small manufacturing starts didn't have anything to do with it. Neither did environmentalism or animal worship on the part of third and fourth generation brats in global corporate families (see academics, political class, all). [More than a little irony and sarcasm there.]

Socialist, government-linked big business collaborators with foreign communist nations aside, though, the default process will be the correction. Government can't stay huge and continue to regulate against real producers and their families (family busting, courtesy romanticist/feminist big shots) without big revenues of real value (re. funny money printing doesn't work).

Let the traitors against our USA go away and stay in their third-world tourist reserves. We need new men in leadership in business, academia and politics.

[1rudeboy]

Nice thread hijack, though. I've noticed that you like to appear early, and distract everyone from why holiday sales might be weak.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Thread hijack?

Huh? I am simply disagreeing with you.

If you have something to contribute to the conversation please do so.

Making silly accusations is not a contribution in my book.