We’re sure that all sorts of information like is going to come out over the next few days. But an early report has holiday sales, from Black Friday to Christmas Eve, rising by 3.6%.
The data, provided by a MasterCard division, is an improvement over the 2.3% drop tracked a year ago. And these better-than-expected results happened in spite of the major storms taking place throughout the Northeast and Midwest.
Electronics sales rose 5.9%, while jewelry posted a surprising 5.6% jump and luxury was up 0.8%. Meanwhile, specialty apparel declined 0.4%, and women’s apparel dropped 3%.
So far so good. But will later reports show more dismal figures than these?
Counter Culture 
Looking at the trafic in the Malls and shopping areas this Season, it did seem like folks were out there buying. Hope we have some positive feedback and that the Season’s numbers show improvement over what was expected and last year’s numbers. We need some good news…
In the overall picture…I’d say yes (slightly and modestly), but the key is what they are buying, where they are buying, and what the margin was on the purchase.
I’ll wait until the January Retail numbers are in….and to what “dealmaker” alluded , wait for the PROFIT numbers to give us the real answer. 🙂
I’m not really a pessimist, but it’s not the volume. And how many times can we get revised numbers…
We only have 6.8 % unemployment here so the stores were very busy the last few days with customers scooping up bargains. It would be very nice to see some positive sales news direct from credible store sources. With other areas of the country suffering much deeper levels of unemployment I can only cross my fingers and hope for the best. I just can’t get that unemployment map out of my head, I wish I could unsee that!
Personally I saw more people driving than flying this year and I think there is a tendency for people to *spend* the delta on presents thinking they will net ahead…
I saw decent traffic during post christmas, and was most impressed by the low levels of inventory and lack of price wars. Overall, I think retailers managed this christmas season well, without the excesses that lead to BK’s last year.
I can’t believe womens apparel is still off, that is what is crushing leasing on most projects right now especially anything resembling a lifestyle center. Perhaps this category was so overshopped and overextended that the base line to calculate growth is still way off? I would have thought this would be the first category to rebound.
Do you mean 2009 not 2008?