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Weekend shopping fever cools after one day

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
The Associated Press

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NEW YORK — The start of the holiday season was respectable but unimpressive for many of the nation's retailers, with consumers jamming stores and malls Friday and pulling back as the weekend wore on.

Big chains including J.C. Penney and Sears, Roebuck were pleased with sales. But Wal-Mart Stores said its sales in the seven days that ended Friday were disappointing, and it lowered its sales forecasts for November.

"Friday overall was strong, but Saturday was weak and disappointing, so together it was only a modest two-day performance," said Michael Niemira, chief economist at International Council of Shopping Centers. "Still, I continue to believe that this is not a bellwether for how the season will end up."

Wally Brewster, spokesman at Chicago-based General Growth Properties, which operates 224 malls in 44 states, said sales and traffic were strong Friday but "stabilized" the rest of the weekend. He expects a weekend sales increase in the low single digits, in line with modest expectations.

Wal-Mart's holiday-weekend sales suffered because the industry leader didn't offer the deep discounts it did in past years, hoping to boost profits, analysts said. Penney and Sears did better by wooing customers with two days of big price breaks.

Wal-Mart said it now expects same-store sales in November to be up only 0.7 percent, instead of the projected 2 to 4 percent.

Niemira said a clearer picture of the Thanksgiving weekend will emerge Thursday. That's when the nation's retailers report their same-store sales figures for November. Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, are considered the best indicator of a retailer's performance.

The first weekend of the season, while important, is not as critical as the last 10 days before Christmas. So, despite the lackluster start, Niemira still forecasts a sales gain of 3 to 4 percent for holiday period.

Online retailers appeared to be doing well. Yahoo! Shopping, which features 200,000 merchants, reported a 70 percent increase in traffic Friday, better than projected.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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