WORLD> America
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WORLD> America
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US holiday sales view still weak after weekend rush
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-01 09:54 Other areas that did well, NRF said, were specialty chains that sell electronics, such as Best Buy Co Inc, and chains that sell apparel, such as Aeropostale Inc. Sales of women's sweaters, jeans and boots were strong at several of Taubman Centers' malls, as well as gadgets including GPS systems, MP3 players and Nintendo Co's Wii game console. Apple's iPod topped online best-seller lists through the weekend as well. Taubman, which owns or manages 24 US shopping centers, gathered anecdotal information from a sampling of stores.
Meanwhile, he said luxury brands are likely to take a hit. "Those that don't discount to protect their brands will have a tougher time," Unger said, referring to prestige names such as Gucci and Chanel. "The consumers that usually shop there are the ones that are now at the Bloomingdale's 40-percent off rack or the Neiman Marcus discount rack." Diane Leeds, 40, of Sacramento, who was shopping at a California Saks store on Sunday morning, said she was surprised to see deep discounts on designer names like Diane Von Furstenberg, Gucci and Valentino. "These are the types of deals you see after Christmas," she said, holding up a colorful Von Furstenberg wrap top that was 50 percent off. "I've never seen racks and racks of those designers." MORE SHOP ON THANKSGIVING DAY In a highly competitive battle to attract shoppers, some retailers, including Kmart, opened on Thanksgiving Day or began offering deals on the holiday, attracting higher traffic to stores and online than in previous years. Others began sales on Friday right after midnight or extended their "doorbuster" deals through Saturday. ShopperTrak, which tracks customer traffic at stores, said Black Friday sales rose 3 percent to $10.6 billion. That was slower than an 8.3 percent rise in 2007. Online sales for Black Friday rose 1 percent to $534 million, said web tracking firm comScore on Sunday. For the first 28 days of November, $10.41 billion was spent online, marking a 4 percent decline versus the corresponding days last year, it said. But Hastings warned against using the Black Friday data as a measure for the rest of the holiday season. "Anything that attempts to use Black Friday to extrapolate and interpret the rest of the holiday season is not correct," he said. "Much more information will be needed." |
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