Friday, December 23, 2016

Late Christmas Shoppers Arrive

I heard of local stores opening at 7 a.m. starting on Tuesday. That day the stores were sadly empty in the early morning, but by Wednesday the late Christmas shoppers started to arrive. Since 5 p.m. Wednesday it has been easy to see that it is the holiday shopping season. Today is Friday, many people are taking the day off, and stores have been busy since early this morning. The 50%-off sales mean that purchases don’t count for quite so much revenue this week, but retailers are still happy to see shoppers in the stores. Everything seems to point to a healthy shopping season just slightly below last year’s numbers. Retailers (other than Walmart) held back on their seasonal purchases this year, so they should come out well enough. Struggling apparel and specialty chains that were counting on a blowout Christmas season to lift them over the top, though, may find that this shopping season was not quite enough.