The Shopping Rush Begins

N E W  Y O R K, Nov. 27 -- The first weekend of the holiday shopping seasonturned out to be a pleasant surprise for worried retailers: Theconsumers who crowded malls and used e-commerce sites spent morethan expected.

“Sales looked pretty decent,” Michael P. Niemira, vicepresident of the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, said Sunday as heestimated that the weekend’s sales would be about 5 to 6 percenthigher than last year. “It’s a good start to the season. But whereit goes from here remains to be seen.”

Deals Bring in ShoppersThe solid sales followed months of sluggish business for manyretailers, but the Thanksgiving weekend receipts were the result ofhard work by merchants. Faced with an overall drop in consumerspending, retailers began discounting earlier than usual andfocused more on what they expected would be the hot items.

Sears, Roebuck, for example, is holding its “BestPrices of the Season” campaign in early December, instead of afterthe holidays.

A combination of stock market volatility, high interest rates,and rising fuel prices have made consumers cut back on things theydon’t really need. Analysts say the unresolved presidentialelection also has contributed to shoppers’ uncertainty.

Retailers are nervous about consumers like David Penner, a58-year-old teacher from Andover, Mass., who plans to cut hisholiday budget because he is spending $100,000 in home renovations.They also want Eleanor Jaick, 55, of Florham Park, N.J., who wasjust browsing Saturday at New Jersey’s Short Hills Mall, to getexcited about this year’s chunky sweaters and leather coats.

However, Jaick lamented: “There’s nothing out there to buy infashion.”

E-Tailers Bring in the CashOnline business was strong during the weekend. Yahoo! Shoppingsaw twice as many transactions on Friday as a year ago, whileKmart’s newly launched Bluelight.com got an unexpected surprisewith a 50 percent to 60 percent gain for the weekend, compared tolast weekend.