[LS]

Actually, many of the stores had GOOD seasons, just not quite as good as last year. K-Mart, for ex., reported that its sales were up, just not as much as expected.

[Centurion2000]

bump .... the internet had a boom season this Christmas as well.

[Dave S]

Actually, many of the stores had GOOD seasons, just not quite as good as last year. K-Mart, for ex., reported that its sales were up, just not as much as expected.

Since when is being up 1.5% a good season. Many of the retailers were showing 10-15% declines. But for the sake of argument, how do you call a 1.5% increase good when you have increases in the size of the economy (more people buying) and some inflation (higher prices of same goods sold). Real increase in items sold per buyer year to year is flat or worse. If your sales are going up, the value of your market price on the stock market is going to plumet.