The Shopping Rush Begins

N E W  Y O R K, Nov. 27, 2000 -- 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.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, while seen as a barometer ofconsumers’ willingness to spend for the holiday, isn’t necessarilya good indicator of how retailers will perform for the entireseason.

In the past few years, that Friday has accounted for less than10 percent of holiday sales, according to the International Councilof Shopping Centers. The week after Christmas is becoming moreimportant.

“I expect a pattern to continue similar to the last couple ofyears,” said Terry Lundgren, president of Federated DepartmentStores Inc., foreseeing a lull for the next couple of weeks andthen another jump closer to Christmas.

Watching Returns CloselyInternet retailers see the next week or so as critical. Onlinebuying got off to a one-week late start, picking up the week ofNov. 12, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings Holiday E-Commerce Index.And although online traffic jumped 27 percent on Friday compared tothe rest of the week, the momentum needs to continue.

“Traffic started out slow, and we need to make up for losttime,” said Sean Kaldor, vice president of e-commerce forNielsen/Net. “Online companies can’t be stuck with all thelast-minute shipments.” He said data for Saturday and Sunday willnot be available until Thursday.

At traditional retailers, hundreds of shoppers mobbed suchstores as K-B Toys, Best Buy and Wal-Mart on Friday to snap upearly bird specials, from $29.99 scooters to $59 VCRs. Within acouple of hours on Friday, Sears sold out of all 127,000 of itsPoo-Chi robotic dogs, whose prices were slashed in half to $14.99.

The Taubman Centers Inc., which owns and manages 27 shoppingcenters in 12 states, reported most of its tenants had sales gainsin the mid-to-high single digits on Friday. On Saturday, customertraffic slowed a bit, according to Karen MacDonald, spokeswoman forthe company based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s largest retailer, said salesat its domestic Wal Marts, Supercenters and Neighborhood Marketstotaled $1.1 billion on Friday; that was up from a year ago but thecompany wouldn’t be specific.

Sears’ sales were up 8 percent on Friday over last year, and theentire weekend’s sales are expected to be up more than 10 percent,said Tom Nicholson, a company spokesman.

The chairman of Bloomingdale’s, Michael Gould, said its strongsales gains were fed by coats, boots, sweaters, and fur.

Christina Johnson, president and chief executive officer of SaksFifth Avenue, said Friday’s traffic was “solid and continuedsteadily throughout the Thanksgiving weekend.”