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Local stores get small crowds day after Christmas
Eagle photo by Gabriel Chmielewski
Academy Sports and Outdoors manager Jesse Lee completes a return for Laurie and Paige Kopetsky, 12, of College Station on Friday morning.
By CHRISTIAN SCHMIDT
christian.schmidt@theeagle.com
Shoppers hit the streets early in Bryan-College Station the day after Christmas, but it wasn't the rush for bargains that many retailers were counting on.
By mid-morning, few area stores were crowded.
Sherree Claiborne had her arms full of bags at Macy's in Post Oak Mall, where she was returning some clothing that wasn't quite what she wanted, she said. She had to wait in a short line to return her items but said the store wasn't as busy as she had feared it might be.
"I parked pretty close to the entrance, and this line isn't anything," Claiborne said.
Claiborne also planned to take a look around some of the mall's stores for some deals.
"I'm here, so yeah, I'll look," Claiborne said. "I just came to return this stuff and maybe get a few other things."
Phong Tran stopped by Target in Bryan to return some gifts.
"My parents never listen," Tran said. "They got me all this [clothing], but I'm trying to return it to get some other things I want."
Nationally, retailers have been reeling from a less-than-stellar holiday season and were hoping that post-Christmas sales would help.
The holiday season -- which typically accounts for 30 percent to 50 percent of a retailer's annual total sales -- has been less than jolly for most retailers. Job cuts, portfolio losses and other economic woes have persuaded consumers to cut back on their spending. Meanwhile, strong winter storms during the holiday season kept some would-be shoppers at home.
According to preliminary data from SpendingPulse -- a division of MasterCard Advisors that tracks total sales paid for by credit card, checks and cash -- retail sales fell between 5.5 percent and 8 percent during the holiday season compared with last year. Excluding auto and gas sales, they fell 2 percent to 4 percent, according to SpendingPulse.
More consumers appeared to do their shopping online, particularly in the last two weeks of the season, when storms in some parts of the country snowed shoppers in. Online sales dipped just 2.3 percent from last year, according to SpendingPulse. Online retailer Amazon.com said Friday that the 2008 holiday season was its "best ever," with more than 6.3 million items ordered.
Many stores are likely to report a loss for the fourth quarter, said NPD Market Research senior retail analyst Marshal Cohen.
A better indicator of how retailers fared will arrive Jan. 8, when major stores report same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, for December.
Stores were hoping that big discounts the day after Christmas could lure people out and help stem those losses. And although some malls appeared to be busy with bargain hunters and gift returners, analysts said traffic appeared to be lighter than in years past.
At Best Buy in College Station, Brian Osburn was using a gift card to buy several new video games.
"I got this for Christmas, and I wanted to get some games right away," Osburn said.
The store didn't seem unusually busy, Osburn said.
* The Associated Press contributed to this story.
