With just seven shopping days left before Christmas, shoppers by the tens of thousands descended on area malls for so-called 'Super Saturday.'
Todd and Alyson Andrews were among the throngs who turned out to finish their Christmas shopping, telling KOMO News they probably spent slightly more on presents than they did in 2010.
Some stores are slashing prices for those with shopping left to do. Discount signs hang in windows trying to lure last-minute shoppers looking for last-minute deals, while others are waiting until Christmas Eve.
The National Retail Federation forecasts holiday sales will rise 3.8 percent over last year. That's more than they forecast earlier this year.
"I can tell you that foot traffic is very strong. It's up from last year," said Matt Bourassa, general manager of the Northgate Mall.
It's a trend that holds locally, where malls say they're seeing more customers than a year ago. While that can make parking a challenge, most said it was worth it.
After a Thanksgiving weekend that set records in terms of sales, in-store shopping has dropped significantly in the two weeks that followed. The cumulative drop from Thanksgiving-week sales in those weeks, of 2.4 percent, was the biggest since 2000, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. The Commerce Department said this week that retail sales in November, including online sales, came in lower than analysts had expected, rising just 0.2 percent to $399.3 billion, the smallest increase in five months.
“That suggests we may not get quite as much momentum in the holiday-sales season as people were expecting,” said Peter Buchanan, an economist at CIBC World Markets. Given that consumer spending makes up the majority of the gross domestic product, he said, “the chances of having a really decent recovery are rather limited if consumers continue to hold back.”Almost 40 percent of Americans said they were done with their holiday shopping as of last week, according to a survey from America’s Research Group and UBS, suggesting there may not be too much spending left to do. Still, the National Retail Federation, the main retail industry group, remains optimistic, and on Thursday raised its holiday forecast to 3.8 percent growth for the season, up from 2.8.
“With a stronger emphasis on Black Friday, the more the industry pushes, it works, but the price of that is this lull,” said Michael P. Niemira, chief economist for the International Council of Shopping Centers.
That lull makes the final days before Christmas especially important this year. Stores including Sears and Target are staying open until midnight in some markets in the run-up to Christmas. Toys “R” Us is staying open for 112 consecutive hours in the days leading up to Christmas, and Macy’s will keep more than a dozen stores open for 83 hours straight.
And all Saturdays are important. “December Saturdays are the highest volume days of the year,” Mr. McNamara said. But none more so than the last Saturday before Christmas — or, this year, the competing last Saturdays — which is sometimes bigger in overall revenue than the Friday after Thanksgiving. Retailers tend to offer deep, cross-category discounts on that day, rather than the limited-quantity specials they offer after Thanksgiving.
J. C. Penney, for instance, plans to offer 60 percent off toys, women’s and men’s coats and luggage sets, and 65 percent off fine jewelry. Sears will give away diamond earrings with $199 jewelry purchases, along with offering 75 percent off most of its jewelry and 65 percent off sweaters. Adding to the confusion, Wal-Mart, which will run a Dec. 17 sale with its lowest prices of the season on items like toys and bikes, says it will not call the day “Super Saturday” — it used that term back in November.
The goal of the Saturday discounts is to get as much Christmas merchandise as possible out the door. And by moving the promotions back a week, retailers will have more time to sell languishing inventory when there is still some demand for it. “The discounts will be deeper, because as they draw nearer to the end of the season, there is merchandise they have to move,” said Kathy Grannis, a spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation.
As for the 34th Street Partnership, it will be out in full force this Saturday — in addition to the digital sign, it will blog about deals and coordinate security and sanitation crews. Mr. Biederman said his staff would also provide the security and cleaning help on Dec. 24, but it was still puzzling over whether its shopping bag count could be compared to Super Saturday of last year.
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