Dreaming of a tight Christmas?

[marmar]

from the AP, via Yahoo!:



Retailers report sluggish October sales

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO, AP Business Writer
28 minutes ago



NEW YORK - The outlook for the holiday shopping season grew bleaker Thursday after retailers announced disappointing October sales results due to consumers' ongoing worries about the housing slump and higher energy prices.

The downbeat news came from all sectors including mall-based apparel stores like Limited Brands Inc. and department stores like Macy's Inc. Even upscale Nordstrom Inc. posted a rare sales decline while Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, posted sales that were below expectations despite its aggressive discounting heading into the holidays.

"Overall, the sales trend continues to slow," said Ken Perkins, president of RetailMetrics LLC, a research company in Swampscott, Mass. "I think the consumer is certainly feeling the (economic) pressure heading into the holidays."

Milder than normal weather also affected sales, wiping out consumers' appetite for winter wear.

According to Thomson Financial, 18 retailers missed expectations, while 10 beat projections. The tally is based on same-store sales or sales at stores opened at least a year and are considered a key indicator of a retailer's health.

With Dec. 25 about seven weeks away, the retail industry is struggling with consumers' eroding confidence and a weakening sales trend amid mounting problems in the economy. Throughout the year, shoppers have been faced with higher gas and food bill and depreciating value of their homes. Tighter credit has also become an issue in recent months. And while last week's move by the Federal Reserve to cut a key interest rate by a quarter-point will make it cheaper to borrow money, economists say it may be too late to help boost holiday spending.

Amid such challenges, many stores including Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us Inc. aimed to jump start the season early this year by offering door busters and big discounts starting last weekend. But shoppers don't seem to be in a hurry to buy.

Wal-Mart posted a 0.4 percent gain in same-store sales. The results were below the 1.1 percent gain expected by analysts polled by Thomson Financial. Same-store sales are a key indicator of a retailer's health. In a release, it said sales of Halloween merchandise were solid across all departments, but seasonal categories related to cold weather including apparel and home furnishings were weak.

The company forecast that same-store sales growth will be no more than 2 percent in November. Wal-Mart,which kicked off its holiday discounts with price cuts on toys in early last month, promised that it will continue to be aggressive in its price cutting throughout the season.

Rival Target Corp., which stumbled in September with disappointing results, fared well in October, posting a 4.1 percent gain in same-store sales. Analysts expected a 2.5 percent gain.

Costco Wholesale Corp. had a 9 percent gain in same-store sales, well exceeding the 5.7 percent estimate.

Among department stores, Nordstrom, which reported a weaker-than-expected 3.2 percent same-store sales gain in September, posted a 2.4 percent drop in October. Analysts had expected a 1 percent gain.

Macy's had a 1.5 percent decline in same-store sales, worse than the 0.6 percent decrease forecast. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071108/ap_on_bi_ge/retail_sales

[tomreedtoon]

1. It's about time, too.

My family (my brothers and sister) stopped exchanging gifts a few years ago.

I already have the majority of my Christmas shopping done; low-cost gifts from eBay. Outside that there's only a few gift-card things for intimate friends.

The real barometer of this will be the Black Friday ads. If the stores start offering real heavy discounts there, and numbers are big, this may be a not-entirely-bleak Christmas for retailers. They may have to deep-discount to get anybody into the stores. Best way to monitor this right now is to see the Black Friday ads at http://bfads.net - so far I haven't seen anything really hot, but who knows?

[WolverineDG]

2. I"ve been planning for one all year

I've told everyone not to expect a bunch of presents. I'm making all the presents I'm giving, with the exception of a couple of gift cards.

dg

[marmar]

3. I'm never a big gift-giver because I DESPISE the commerciality of it all....

... and certainly not this year.

[Fresh_Start]

4. I've been saying for a couple of years the only way to bring

this sham of a government to its knees is to blow away the smoke&mirrors surrounding the economy.
While I hate seeing my hard earned money deflated and my investments tank, if it leads to the end of the GOP era, it will be well worth it.

Guess what GOP, St Reagan was WRONG - "Deficits matter".

[marmar]

5. Agreed....and it's been a brutal 2 months for my 401K

:scared:

[Fresh_Start]

6. I'm going okay this year.

But I'm far behind the goals I had set in 2000. It took until last year to recover from disaster of 2001.

[mikelgb]

7. oh yeah

[knitter4democracy]

8. I'm feeling like we're back in residency, honestly.

I'm reading and following the Tightwad Gazette and doing what I can to cut spending here at home as much as possible, and that includes Christmas. With all the medical costs this year (stupid new insurance with $2400 deductible!), we're really tight. Food costs are skyrocketing, so we're not eating out as much and are buckling down and eating a lot more casseroles and such. Simple food. We're doing what we can to get the house ready for winter so our heating bills don't break the bank.

The kids will just have to learn to be happy with less.

[Digit]

9. Retailers are having a very difficult time...buyers are skittish

Gas going way up in price once again...and consumers know they will be paying dearly for food down the line due to this increase.
Winter is coming and the forecast is for higher heating bills, natch.

Oh, and who can even afford to go out for dinner these days?

After the 2000 Selection, before I even found DU, I posted on a few sites that we should have "trickle up" economics as the more money the the common man had in income, the more they would spend.
I was consummately flamed as could be expected by the right wingers.
Now we see in action how flawed trickle DOWN economics is in actuality.

I also fear for my own job (once again).

[lonestarnot]

10. I'm not hang'n one ball, not buying on piece of shit nutt'n. Not now, not then and not after.