Holiday Shopping

Prime Retail Inc. is banking on the bubbly personality of television sitcom actress Faith Ford to popularize its new brand image across the country for 51 shopping centers that carry the Prime Outlets name.With her quick smile and light-hearted style, Ford -- who long played Corky Sherwood on "Murphy Brown," and now stars on her own show, "Maggie Winters" -- will carry a $5 million multi-media advertising campaign through the holidays.Ford fits the target demographic and tested well with dozens of consumer focus groups.

Holiday shopping got off to a slow start for some retailers the day after Thanksgiving, though analysts still predict overall sales gains for the crucial season.Retail sales dipped an average 0.5 percent in the state and 2.1 percent in the Baltimore metropolitan region, compared with the same day a year ago, according to the TeleCheck Services' retail index, an indicator based on purchases by check.Retailers and analysts blamed earlier-than-usual promotions, a later-than-usual Hanukkah, which falls on Dec. 24 this year, and rainy weather for the slower start.

Looking for a little holiday cheer yesterday, Mary Ann Hugg found it in Annapolis at the Christmas Spirit shop on Main Street where business was brisk and smiles were plentiful."

AS SOON AS the holiday shopping season begins, I start chanting this incantation: "Just pretend it is a hardware store. Just pretend it is a hardware store."I do this when I find myself in one of those "other" stores, the kind of store that sells clothes or household furnishings. The kind of store you have to visit when you buy presents for people on your holiday gift list.I do this to get myself in a hardware-store kind of mood. I am comfortable prowling around a hardware store. But I get uneasy when I have to spend much time in places where you are supposed to "shop."

Driven by the American obsession with sales and freebies, shoppers rose before dawn to take part in the traditional feast of holiday shopping yesterday.And because Black Friday came as late on the calendar as it could, stores conspired to get customers through their doors earlier in the morning than ever.At the Target in Ellicott City's Long Gate Shopping Center, which opened at 7 a.m., they started arriving at 5: 30 a.m.By 6: 45, the crowd had swelled to more than 100.Why does someone get up that early to go shopping the day after Thanksgiving?

If an early survey is right, this holiday shopping season will end up being a disappointing one for many retailers.The International Council of Shopping Centers said yesterday that its annual survey of the season shows a 3 percent gain over 1995, which was a dismal year.Two months ago, most retailers and analysts had predicted at least a 4 percent gain -- and were hoping for better.But John Konarski, vice president of research at ICSC, called the gain "impressive," noting that there were five fewer shopping days this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Shopping tip that takes the cakeGetting "malled" while trying to finish your holiday shopping? Take time out for a cup of tea and a slice of cake from the new Sweet Indulgence shop in Towson Town Center. The shop also offers luscious gift ideas: Christmas gift box cakes ($30-$40), chocolate sleighs that can be filled with cookies or candy ($29.95) and gingerbread houses ($25 and $60). The shop, on the second level, is open from 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Christmas shoppers are spending and charging with abandon this year, boosting revenues for many retailers in the county over last year's holiday shopping season."

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, but already most of us are making preparations for the more hectic Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations.On Friday, a plethora of sales will be offered by almost every store. This begins what is traditionally the heaviest shopping weekend of the year. From now until Christmas, malls become crowded, bank accounts become smaller and the patience of shoppers becomes shorter.Last year, a neighbor told me that she had found the secret of stress-free holiday shopping -- cable TV's Home Shopping Network.

The winds of change are blowing through the malls. The cautious optimism that retailers were expressing a few weeks ago isn't as cautious now.At Columbia Mall this week, store owners and managers say they've noticed an improved mood since the election -- whether from joy at the outcome or relief that the campaign's finally over.The atmospheric difference this year is dramatic. Last year, retailers approached the holiday shopping season with dark foreboding. The smiles were forced, the expressions of confidence rang hollow.

Today is a day for jack-o'-lanterns and candy corn, but some retailers would rather you think about Christmas trees and candy canes instead. Sears will launch the holiday shopping season today by offering deep discounts normally reserved for the day after Thanksgiving. The department store chain is calling its promotion "Black Friday Now." Other retailers have also announced they are starting holiday deals. Walmart has 100 toys for $10 and is selling soon-to-be released books for $8.99.

Shoppers taking advantage of steep discounts and door-buster deals spent more than expected the day after Thanksgiving, providing retailers with a surprisingly strong start to the holiday season. But spending slowed as the weekend progressed, according to early surveys. And retail experts questioned whether stores would be able to keep up the momentum in a year when consumers say they are cutting their holiday budgets amid an ailing economy. By most estimates, this holiday shopping season is expected to be the worst in years.

Are you ready for some shopping? No, seriously. I'm saying you need to prepare if you're going to brave holiday shopping this week, online or off. Here are three useful tools offered by many retailer Web sites that Consumer Reports Money Adviser says can help you find good deals this week: RSS feeds: RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, allows retailers to send Web pages with news about sales and promotions directly to your PC. Wal-Mart, for example, has...

Holiday shopping can feel like an expensive chore, robbing you of precious weekends. Or it can feel like a present to yourself. We've investigated three destinations, within a few hours drive, where you can get all of your holiday shopping done in a single, concentrated weekend. Use it as a getaway with your girlfriends or a way to entice your spouse into helping you find a gift for his picky parents. You can justify your short trip's cost because the getaway frees your other weekends so you can do something, anything, besides battling shoppers on a mall parking lot. Each of these destinations has a mix of boutiques, where your dollars support Main Street businesses and local artists, and larger shopping complexes, where you're sure to find good deals from national chains desperate for customers.

Too often this week, Xavier Henry would look across the racks of sweater dresses, skinny jeans and other trendy clothing at his Melrose Place Boutique and see few, if any, customers. It's indicative of the sluggish holiday shopping season. Consumers stressed out about high energy, gas and food prices have cut back on their spending. Retailers such as Henry, whose store is at Security Square Mall, are hoping their bottom lines will improve starting today. It's the final weekend of the holiday shopping season, when procrastinators and those holding out for the steepest discounts are expected to crowd stores for last-minute shopping.

Discounted sweaters, laptops and personal GPS navigation systems drew large crowds during the Thanksgiving shopping weekend, according to several early surveys, but customers also appeared to temper their spending amid concerns over the economy. Despite positive signs over the weekend, analysts cautioned yesterday that retailers must keep enticing customers with bargains to sustain momentum through the end of the year. Several retailers and economists say this holiday shopping season could be the worst in five years, in part because of the slumping housing market and higher energy costs.

Iam already dreading the holiday gift-giving season. The pushing. The shoving. Grabbing gifts left and right. The frustration and bickering. The tears. And that's just describing the Christmas Day ritual of opening presents. I haven't even begun to rant about the actual shopping. I kid, but only a little bit. The National Retail Federation says we're expected to spend a stunning $474.5 billion this holiday shopping season, 4 percent more than last year. Still, it expects us to be more deliberate and demanding about how we spend our money because of concerns about housing and credit -- not to mention the usual hassles about packed parking lots, long lines, crowded stores and sometimes thorny return policies.

The perennial holiday showdown of wills between retailers and shoppers gets fiercer each year. People shop later and later, waiting for better deals, while retailers hold out, waiting for desperation to overtake the instinct for bargain hunting. This year, the retailers appear to be blinking. As shoppers head today into what is expected to be the busiest day of a so-far-modest holiday shopping season, some retailers are slashing prices and offering special promotions and hours normally seen on the day after Thanksgiving.

I believe Christmas shopping is not for the faint of heart. No, it is for the warriors. There are a few keys to victory: You must have a written plan and a strategy for success. Above all, you must stay the course. You cannot cut and run, no matter how many people are waiting in line at the store. If you do, someone else will be walking away with your special buy and there will be no rainchecks available. Tried-and-true veterans of holiday shopping, like myself, begin planning their campaign around Thanksgiving.

There is something unseemly about our nation's obsessive preoccupation with holiday shopping when our troops are dying and being maimed in Iraq. Should our indulgence be tempered by thoughts of the thousands of Iraqis who have also perished in the conflict as well as the billions of people around the globe lacking adequate drinking water and sanitation? Do we need to take stock when the valuable natural resources used in many of the products we buy are being drained from the earth at an unsustainable rate and are not being recycled?