Saturday, December 15, 2012

Shock Surprise Again


Holiday shoppers may see big discounts soon
NEW YORK (AP) - If shoppers don't show up in stores soon, more "70 percent off" sale signs will.
After a promising start to the holiday shopping season over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, sales have slowed, according to an analysis of data done for The Associated Press by sales tracker ShopperTrak. Worries about weak U.S. job growth and other concerns are likely to blame for Americans spending less.
That puts pressure on J.C. Penney, Macy's and other stores, which offered fewer discounts this year, to step up promotions to lure shoppers.


Read more: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/dec/14/business-highlights/#ixzz2FA5WGLIt
- vcstar.com 


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You'd think the reporters would try a different scheme.  This one hasn't worked for years now.  

5 comments:

TJandTheBear said...

Perhaps I should hold out a few more days??

Stagflationary Mark said...

For what it is worth, I do a shopping loop about once a month to stock up on food and the basics.

I generally go mid-week. I ended up going on Friday (yesterday) this time. I started at about 5pm. Not ideal! I braced for the worst.

I hit Wal-Mart, Costco, and Sam's Club. It was not shopping cart bumper-to-bumper traffic. There were no cart traffic jams. It kind of surprised me. Sam's Club was especially light at around 7pm. I asked the checker if she'd done her Christmas shopping yet. She hadn't and she said it with very little enthusiasm.

Speaking of lack of shopping enthusiasm, I had no desire to participate in this year's Thanksgiving Day Christmas sales.

Surly there must be a better way to be thankful than to fight with fellow Americans over the last $2 waffle iron that's made in China. It's almost like the corporations are trying to turn their stores into coliseums and their customers into gladiators. Sigh.

Son of Brock Landers said...

I didnt know Tera Patrick was getting mainstream modelling gigs.

Sri said...

The challenge facing retailers, this year (especially brick and mortar) was to sustain customer interest over the longer Thanksgiving to Christmas period. That's very hard to do once you've shot your wad on Very Dark Thursday and Black Friday type of extreme value promotion. But I expect this coming weekend to reflect very strong shopping.

Cinco-X said...

Stopped in at Dick's Sporting Goods last night for a pair of boots (my son's Xmas gift for me). Damn! talk about dead...I don't know that they do "that" big of a Xmas business, but it was dead...I think that there were about as many employees as there were shoppers...