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Lynne Sladky / AP file
Retailers are hoping for an early Christmas gift this year, trying to coax shoppers to visit their stores and make "last-minute" purchases more than a week before the 25th.
Retailers are hoping for an early Christmas gift this year, trying to coax shoppers to visit their stores and make "last-minute" purchases more than a week before the 25th.
At some major retailers -- including big department store brands -- this Saturday is being billed as the day to score 11th-hour discounts. Stores are hoping the promotion will insulate them from the possibility of a slack Christmas Eve, which falls next Saturday.
When Christmas falls on a Sunday (or on a Saturday), the calendar handicaps stores that are dependent on a full weekend when "last-minute" mentality takes hold and drives shoppers into stores, according to John Long, retail strategist with consulting firm Kurt Salmon.
Although shoppers spent $52 billion on Black Friday weekend, retailers have come to depend on a last-minute rush of consumers trained to hold out until the final hours for the best markdowns. Since merchants can't actually move Christmas Day, they've done the next best thing by moving what's been dubbed "Super Saturday" one week earlier.
Last year, with Christmas falling on a Saturday, stores had no choice but to hype up the preceding weekend. And they hit the jackpot by essentially changing the calendar, according to Long.
"The last Saturday and Sunday last year were among the busiest days of the year for the entire retail calendar," he said. "From a retailer's standpoint, they're obviously trying to 'anniversary' a very heavy weekend."
Spreading out the holiday sales rush also gives stores some breathing room: They can avoid potential sale-killers like empty racks and long lines.
Will consumers play along? They dutifully cracked open their wallets on Black Friday, but according to new data from the National Retail Federation, many are rethinking those purchases; return rates have already increased. Customers have also been trained to wait until the last minute (by the same stores that would like them now to complete their shopping a week earlier); whether they'll repeat last year's earlier spending is an open question.
Retailers also run the risk of alienating consumers fatigued by a growing number of increasingly specific promotional events, ranging from "Small Business Saturday" to "Green Monday." They also risk confusing consumers, since some big brands are sticking to Christmas Eve as the day to court the last-minute crowd.
In spite of the risks, Long said retailers are willing to make the gamble because the payoff could be twofold, with shoppers descending on stores this weekend, and then coming out to buy more on Christmas Eve anyway.
The 24th could end up being what Long called a "bonus day" for retailers. He said department stores, which carry in-demand categories such as apparel and accessories, would benefit, as would retailers of must-have electronics like Apple's iPad tablet.
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IF the government keeps the payroll tax break in place then MAYBE I will spend more money on Christmas gifts this week.
MAYBE...
Want me to buy things? Then carry things I want to buy. I'm in the middle of Texas and the stores all have heavy winter coats when all I need is a thin lightweight jacket.
I want some nice conservative clothes for a middle age man but all the stores seem to carry are clothes that high school and college boys wear. How about some clothes for the rest of the male population?
I want a mid sized mid range desktop Mac but Apple refuses to market a computer between the $600 mini and the $2500 Mac Pro. Sorry, I'm not buying an iMac. I will likely switch to Windows after almost 20 years of using Apple computers because Apple is not longer meeting my needs.
I would love to buy some good quality USA made goods but everything comes from China. I'd rather do without than have to buy cheap throwaway junk again and again. That's a complete waste of my hard earned money.
New Balance dropped my made in USA tennis shoes. I don't want to buy one of their Chinese made ones.
So if the stores are disappointed with their sales totals maybe they need to tell their corporate buyers to stock the shelves with better goods.
I've got plenty of money, I need the right things to spend it on but those products aren't out there.
Welcome to the windows family of fine computers!
I agree, If there were american products that put americans to work, I might open my wallet more. The chinese,..... who cares about red squares who use slave labor who seem to have our polititions just fawning over for some unamerican reason. I will wait and scale back even farther and game the system like they do. I dont need xmas that bad. I will spend money on my kids birthday and other times of the year when I can get a real deal or wait to buy a quality american if possible product. truthfully and sadly, there are plenty of pawn shops and garage sales I can get far better stuff for cheap outside of electronics which I will wait for deals. I feel your pain on the tennis shoes, made in china costing 150 bucks. Makes you want to cry to see what happend to america.
"They can avoid potential sale-killers like empty racks..."
That's the fatal flaw of not having enough merchandise and it's only excusable one minute before the store closes for Christmas. Why do they want to run out earlier?
Because they've been left with a storeful of goods in Christmases past that they either have to sell at great loss or can't sell at all after the first of the year. I've seen stores still trying to sell winter merchandise right up until it's time to put out Easter bunnies. Winter and Christmas items used to be pretty well sold out in January. I recently asked a Walmart store about some a solid aisle of left over school supplies and the clerk said they were stored in a trailer until after Christmas when they would bring them out again. I can't imagine that store is thrilled about being stuck with leftovers from any season.
The stores can "last minute grab" all they want to. We're safely out of their reach.
For some shoppers, a week before Christmas is last minute shopping. I have some family members that start in October. I personally wait until after Thanksgiving so I can get the sales and then I get it done right away to avoid frantic last minute shoppers.
I start shopping whenever I see something I want on sale throughout the year. Christmas isn't the only time we can find a killer deal.
We have been badly hit by the economic disaster and won't be doing much shopping, well actually we won't be doing any shopping. Keeping the heat and lights on is Christmas enough.
Christmas is in supermarkets and malls in China.
I'm with Joe D. Glenn,
Considering the dismal state of the economy and the regional economy in my area, I doubt i will do any shopping this year. Just don't have it. Stores can kiss my a$$ this year.
Also, i think the whole "record breaking black friday sales" headline is propaganda. There are at least half a dozen large box stores in my area and none of them were so bustling with shoppers that morning, or have been since. The people just are not shopping like i've seen in the past.
This is good; maybe, just maybe there will be a better appreciation for the holidays other than a commercial self-indulgence and an artificial sense of happiness and more good will to others.
And the amount of people taking things back, along with the drop in sales since "Black Friday" tells me quite a few will be in the red. Look for unemployment to go back up as retailers start trimming the seasonal and the regular.
Macy's fired an employee at a Texas store for not letting a teenage boy who claimed to be transgender use the women's dressing rooms.
So, ladies, remember that next time you shop at Macy's.
Why should I remember that next time I shop at Macy's? The most likely suspect for peeping when I'm trying on clothing would be someone watching the security monitors, not a teenaged boy who may or may not be transgender. Either way, I've more important things to worry about in life.
If the teenager is allowed into the women's dressing rooms on just his word that he is transgender, then why can't all men who want to look at women undressing just declare they are transgender? It's a lot cheaper than paying for lap dancers. :-)
Wow, gee. I will worry every time I shop at Macy's from now on. You really have me delirious with anxiety.
You might want men in the women's dressing rooms. I don't. No more than I want them in the women's restrooms. We might as well make everything unisex.
It may be nice to have a man in the women's dressing room. At least they would give you an honest answer when you ask "how do I look"
Don't get melancholy or emotional. December 26th comes and no one remembers the 24th and 25th which is all advertising to separate you from your money or promise of future money. Stay Strong. People that love you don't care.
a fool and there money are soon parted . old saying that still applies
I haven't done Christmas shopping in decades and I can tell you I don't miss it a bit. I understand the retailers need to make money to stay in business, but they won't make it off of me.
I was frugal before the bubble explosion and I'm more so now with no regular income.
I hope we. the American people, make a statement this year to Corporate America...Christmas, and all other related holidays mean a lot more to us than fattening the bottom lines of profiteers.
I can't wait to see how many companies who are sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars will close their doors in 2012. I feel badly for the many thousands of jobs that will be lost, but when the American people that depend on the dividends from Corporate American profiteers are no longer getting their share of the booty, maybe, just maybe, they will join the 99% in taking back control of our government and legally address our enimies...Corporate American profiteers, greedy Banking families, Wall street manipulators, etc.
I wish everyone a Peaceful and Joyous holiday season.