Holiday Shopping Season off to Modest Start

New York-based retail consultant Walter Loeb said he expects sales for the weekend to be below year-ago levels, based on discussions this weekend with key executives from discounters and department stores.

Shoppers are reflected as they enter the Nike Store on Chicago's Magnificent Mile Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

(AP)

But he added, "It wasn't as bad as some feared. ... People were buying but they bought cheap, and the results were not as good."

Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group, a market research group, who had a network of analysts at 53 mall locations across the country this weekend, said that "the holiday started off with some promise but quickly moved to concern."

"It could have been a disaster, but it wasn't," he said, noting that he estimates that the weekend's sales were at best even with the same holiday weekend a year ago.

Karen MacDonald, a spokeswoman at Taubman Centers Inc., which operates 24 malls in 11 states, said that based on a sampling of malls, business on Friday was anywhere from unchanged to up mid-single digits. But on Saturday, sales were unchanged to down slightly.

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"Friday was encouraging, but Saturday wasn't as good as we hoped," she said.

But Toys R Us Chief Executive Jerry Storch reported on Sunday that customer traffic was at least as strong this past weekend as the Thanksgiving weekend a year ago, and said he was "definitely pleased with sales."

Geoffrey Webb, director of advertising and sales promotions at K-B Toys Inc., said that sales for the weekend were equal or slightly better than last year.

"We are very encouraged by the response," he said.

A more complete sales picture of how the Thanksgiving shopping weekend fared won't be known until Thursday when the nation's retailers report November same-store sales, or sales at stores opened at least a year.

According to preliminary figures released Saturday by ShopperTrak RCT, a research firm that tracks total retail sales at more than 50,000 outlets, sales rose 3 percent to $10.6 billion on Friday from the Black Friday a year ago.