US retailers expecting to ring up sales on Sunday, the day after Christmas, may have to intensify discounts after a snowstorm slammed the US’ east coast, disrupting one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
Spending may shift into next month, according to Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group Inc, a research firm based in Port Washington, New York.
“It’s like throwing a party and nobody comes because the focus has gone from post-holiday shopping to post-holiday travel,” Cohen said in a telephone interview on Sunday. “Look for sales to be repeated by retailers. They’re going to be more aggressive. They’ve got to throw another party.”
The day after Christmas is one of the five busiest shopping days of the year and it may take retailers two weeks to recapture sales lost on Sunday, Cohen said. At the same time, shoppers may lose their enthusiasm as the holiday season wanes, he said.
Earlier this month, the US National Retail Federation boosted its holiday retail sales forecast by 1 percentage point, to an increase of 3.3 percent. Yesterday, MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse, a Purchase, New York-based research firm, was expected to release sales numbers for the entire holiday season.
Consumer confidence rose last month to the highest level in five months as more Americans, whose purchases account for about 70 percent of the US economy, put faith in improving job and income prospects.
At 9:30am on Sunday, only two cars had pulled into the parking lot of a Sears Holdings Corp store in Greensboro, North Carolina, even though the retailer had advertised early-bird discounts of up to 60 percent on clothing and 30 percent on refrigerators and washing machines.
“My wife wasn’t happy when I decided to come out,” Michael Scarlett said while shopping at the Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based chain after 8cm of snow had accumulated overnight.
He planned to pick up an Android tablet computer he’d ordered online and return home.
At 10:30am on Sunday, the Apple Inc store in Greensboro had 17 customers and 17 red-shirted employees, including four at the front window watching a yellow bulldozer push snow into a pile in the parking lot. At a Macy’s Inc location, the cosmetics counters had no customers shortly before 11am.
Further north, in Whitehall, Pennsylvania, shopper Camille Qualtere was surprised to find the Lehigh Valley Mall “deserted” on Sunday.
“We thought: ‘Is the mall closed?’” said Qualtere, 54, who took her two daughters to return unwanted gifts and shop for discounted clothes at Cincinnati-based Macy’s before the storm started. “I didn’t hear about the snow because I was cooking all day yesterday. My daughter just told me about it.”
Shopping at the same mall, Kris Kotsch bought a pair of snow boots to prepare for the storm. With no snow falling yet, the 42-year-old photography teacher went back inside armed with the gift cards she received for Christmas to look for a new mobile phone.
“I came for the boots,” Kotsch said. “Now I’m going to look for more.”
Consumers may temper their spending if the storm’s aftermath stalls shopping for several days and the frugality of New Year’s resolutions kicks in, said Michael Dart, the San Francisco-based head of private equity at the New York consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates.
“You’re moving into an environment where the consumer is going to be pulling back,” Dart said on Sunday. “Retailers don’t want to lose too many of those shopping days. If it’s just today, it’s not a big deal, but the longer the weather remains bad, it becomes problematic for retailers.”
In Manhattan, shortly before noon on Sunday, 13 people waited in the checkout line at a Gap Inc store, where cotton thermal long sleeved T-shirts were marked down to US$10 from US$22.50. Some items were selling at 80 percent off until noon and then half off for the rest of the day.
“I’m not concerned about the snow slowing us down,” said Janet Guillen, manager of the Gap store, which is near a subway stop.
“People are still shopping,” she said, as the snowfall entered its second hour.
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