Retailers slashed prices the day after Christmas as much as 60 to 80 percent and extended hours to attract customers, but it appears their efforts will not be enough to salvage a dismal holiday shopping season.
Early figures indicated a drop of as much as 8 percent in holiday spending this year, and retail observers reported lackluster crowds yesterday at malls and big box stores nationwide.
"Everybody was saying it's going to be the second Black Friday," said Shavoune Desper of Laurel, who was shopping at Arundel Mills mall with her aunt Yolanda Townsend and several nieces and nephews.
When they arrived at 9 a.m., she said, "the parking lot was almost empty."
Usually retailers make 14 percent of their holiday sales in the last week of December, said C. Britt Beemer, CEO and founder of America's Research Group. However, "the 14 percent can't change the 86 percent that went before it," he said.
Gift card sales were down this year, and those usually drive end-of-December purchases. Beemer suspected most transaction this week would be trades - exchanges of products rather than new sales.
That's what drew Connie Johnson of Alexandria, Va., to Arundel Mills with her two daughters about 10 a.m. yesterday.
"We came up to exchange something and then we found some bargains," she said. After returning a gift at Tommy Hilfiger, the three picked up shoes at Nine West and clothes at Ann Taylor Loft.
Johnson said she wasn't directly affected by adverse economic conditions this year, so she didn't limit her Christmas shopping very much, but that kind of spending won't continue.
"Now, after Christmas, we're going to be buckling down," she said. "We just don't know what's going to happen."
The economy made the holiday season - which typically accounts for 30 to 50 percent of a retailer's annual total sales - less than jolly for most stores.
Job cuts, portfolio losses and other economic woes have caused consumers to cut back their spending. Across the country, strong winter storms during the holiday season kept some would-be shoppers at home.
According to preliminary data from SpendingPulse - a division of MasterCard Advisors that tracks total sales paid for by credit card, checks and cash - retail sales fell between 5.5 percent and 8 percent during the holiday season compared with last year. Excluding auto and gas sales, they fell 2 percent to 4 percent, according to SpendingPulse.
