Posted on 12/16/2001 1:06:34 PM PST by sarcasm
NEW YORK (AP) -- With less than two weeks left until Christmas, retailers struggling with disappointing sales slashed their prices further, but their efforts might not be enough to help some make their sales goals.
``They're desperately trying to move out merchandise, but they are not doing so successfully,'' Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Trend Report, said Sunday. ``This is the home stretch, and they are whipping the horse, but the horse is responding only sluggishly.''
Despite the abundance of bargains, many shoppers -- nervous about job security and political uncertainties -- were reluctant to splurge.
``I am spending less, just buying toys for my friends' children,'' said Judy Boudreau, from Jupiter, Fla., who was at Macy's in New York. ``I have to be more conservative, given what has happened to my investment portfolio.''
Lana Wienberg, shopping in Denver, said her family was forgoing some holiday spending to visit relatives in St. Louis.
``I guess we've re-evaluated,'' Wienberg said. ``We're spending more money on travel and less on gifts.''
For retailers, the disappointments of the season keep growing.
The Thanksgiving shopping weekend, while solid, failed to give merchants the relief they were hoping for. And sales have been limping along since then. Sales at 80 of the nation's regional malls have declined 3.2 percent, from Nov. 23 through Dec. 9, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. The results, however, don't include sales at department stores and other mall anchors.
Major stores were scheduled to report their weekly results, including sales from this past weekend, on Monday. Overall, the numbers were not expected to be good, although some companies said Sunday they were doing surprisingly well.
Sales at Bloomingdale's were running above expectations this weekend, according to chairman Michael Gould. But at K-B Toys, which operates 1,400 stores, the weekend's sales were up only in the low single digits from a year ago.
``We were hoping for better,'' said spokesman John Reilly, noting that sales of game consoles and game software were strong, but toys sales were unchanged from a year ago.
The Washington, D.C.-based National Retail Federation predicts total holiday retail sales, which excludes restaurant and auto sales, will rise in the range of 2.5 percent to 3 percent, to roughly $206 billion. That would make it the worst retail performance since 1990, when sales were basically unchanged.
Jeff Feiner, a managing director at Lehman Brothers (news/quote), expects sales at the 22 stores he follows will be up 2 percent, the worst since 1991.
``Discounting was rampant this weekend,'' said Feiner, noting that such heavy markdowns will only further erode retailers' profit margins.
Struggling Gap Inc. (news/quote) took even more aggressive markdowns to move out its merchandise, ranging from crocheted scarves that had retailed for $28 and were now $9.99, to lambswool and angora-blended sweaters that had dropped from $78 to $39.99.
At Saks Fifth Avenue's New York flagship there were racks of designer merchandise discounted by as much as 40 percent.
At Macy's New York store, consumers swarmed over piles of discounted handbags and sweaters. For some items that were marked down twice, consumers were able to shave 90 percent off the original price -- a great deal for a shopper, but disastrous for a store's receipts.
``I'm spending less this year because there are a lot more bargains,'' said Laura Manning, from Medford, N.Y., who has almost completed her holiday shopping.
``You're really getting more for your money,'' she said. ``I got sweaters that were 60 percent off for my sons in stores on Long Island. They're giving it away.''
Nancy Hellerstein, shopping in Denver, said the abundance of deals are luring her back to the malls.
``I'm one of these people who tries to do things early and I do, but at the last minute I think, 'That's a really good sale, I'll just go get one more thing,''' she said, while shopping the sale racks at Sears.
While most stores have found that their biggest problem is having too much merchandise, some have run short on certain items, including the hot Harry Potter toys.
As a result, Laura Lindstrom, from Bristol, Conn., regretted not starting her shopping earlier.
``I try to get it done all at once,'' said Lindstrom, who started her holiday shopping on Saturday, and was at the Westfarms Mall, in suburban Hartford, Conn., but ``there's nothing left to buy.''
She added that she tried to get some Harry Potter merchandise for her cousins, as well as Nintendo (news/quote)'s GameBoy Advance, but there were none to be had.
``I was so desperate that I got my uncle a bonsai plant,'' she said.
IMO, Prices are just to highly inflated. You can lower interest rates all you want, but if wages do not inflate at the same rate as durable goods, you get recession, and then depression. The housing markets are also overly inflated. For example, people who bought a house 4 years ago at 250,000 say they could not afford their OWN home in todays markets.
I hope our current administration can pull us out of this mess. But it took years (8) to get us here,.. it may take a while to get us out of it. I don't know that we share the belief that it will start to improve by spring. Not enough tangible change for that. Just look at the stock market and real estate prices. Talk about irrational exuberance!!
I just recently learned that they have changed the amount of debt to income ratio for homeowners. The debt ceiling is a lot higher. A recipe for disaster... Things have to change dramatically before they will "truly" get better.
Greed is still the dominant emotion regarding pricing. But soon, so many people will be out of work, that housing will be in big trouble. There was just an article on here (I believe it was here, but it could have been my local newspaper) where all the city mayors have reported an increase in families asking for financial assistance, medical assistance and food.
Then when you put that,..with the fact that the "reported" unemployement rates are only reflected by people STILL recieving unemployement benefits (not taking into account, all those whose benefits RAN OUT) one realizes that we are in an economic nightmare.
Yet, Americans are still buying up the large ticket, overly priced real estate in my area. It's just unbelievable!!! The area realtors are "feeding" the local paper here with stories of how the real estate markets are in trouble elsewhere in our state,. but we are enjoying growth. Bull puckey!!
For crying out loud.. a car payment is what a typical house payment used to be not long ago!!! How does anyone own two cars?? It has gotten bizarre.
BigMack
BigMack
Been there, done that.
Being a landlord ain't for me, I don't care how much it helps pay off debt.
sw
I know what you mean. You have to want to, and treat each property like a business, and be in it for the long haul.
BigMack
We made that decision many years ago also.
We use a vehicle until the repair costs (own work) get too extreme, then buy another 3-4 yrs. old. With current "jellybean" shaped clones for vehicles nobody knows what year they are anyway. We keep a P/U going usually, and with them if you do a decent paintjob on an older one, the same is true.
Debt Free means Peace of Mind these days.
And when you can put back enough money of your own, you can tell the banks to go to #ell, and be your own banker thats the part I like. :)
BigMack
Personally, I don't owe anyone one cent on anything and pay my CC card bill on the first of every month. I'm waiting for the realestate market to crash so that I can make some quick big bucks.
My moto is "If Wal Mart don't Have it You Don't Need IT"
BigMack
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