As the most critical part of the Christmas shopping season begins, retailers are quaking in their boots – and slashing prices.
The news so far has been bad for retailers. Their year-to-year increases have been so slim that most industry analysts have revised seasonal expectations even further downward.
But there are plenty of procrastinators. America Online revealed that with eight shopping days until Christmas, 34 percent of its members had not even started shopping and 81 percent still had gift-buying to do.
So retailers are lining up deals to lure those late-season shoppers, bumping up discounts.
While Macy’s had its last one-day sale before the holiday on Wednesday, “there are still some good sales and values,” a company spokeswoman said.
To give busy shoppers more opportunity to buy, Kmart stores will be open for 110 straight hours, starting this morning and not closing until 8 p.m. on Dec. 24.
“It will be very crowded this weekend,” said Mike Niemira, economist for the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. “How much they’ll spend is the question.”
Concerns like the slowing economy and increased talk of a war with Iraq are weighing heavily on consumers’ minds.
Niemira said his company surveyed retail CEOs to determine what impact they thought a war would have. “They believe a war could be worth as much as one percentage point of lost sales,” he said.