Malls were packed on Christmas Eve. It will go down as one of the biggest days before Christmas on record. Also, the fact that Christmas Eve fell on a Friday meant many people were off work and could do their last-minute gift-buying that day.
These discounts are too good to pass up. But we think that these are planned sales and not at the expense of retailers' profits.
There were a lot of people out in the stores this past weekend, and from the looks of things, it seems like a lot of people have a lot of shopping left to do. It's going to be a busy next two weeks.
There are always some people who will say negative things just to get attention from the press, ... Our forecast is realistic. It's not spectacular. There are some lagging factors such as unemployment and energy costs that could bring it down. At this time we don't anticipate changing our forecast.
In the grand scheme of things, we might see growth of 5.6 percent instead of 5.7 percent.
The one thing that October showed us is that consumers aren't afraid to spend, even in a slow economy.
It seems like this year it hasn't been as much of a challenge for retailers to find good quality holiday help. It seems like this year there are a lot of people out there looking for part-time work as well as full-time jobs. It's a great opportunity for people to make additional income and get their foot in the door.
From our consumer survey, we found that consumers plan to spend a little more this year than last, ... That's no surprise because consumers have a little more money in their pockets than they did a year ago.
The number-one aspect of the shopping season this year will be sales and promotions. If retailers can deliver good sales and promotions, consumers will buy.
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