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Pastimes : The Justa & Lars Honors Bob Brinker Investment Club -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Justa Werkenstiff who wrote (10108)	11/27/1999 8:13:00 PM
From: Justa Werkenstiff	Respond to of 15132

Saturday November 27, 4:42 pm Eastern Time U.S. retailers see bright holiday season By David Bailey CHICAGO, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Shoppers on Saturday pursued all things Pokemon as they kicked off one of the busiest retailing weekends of the year amid bright hopes for holiday sales among traditional retailers and Internet merchants. Peg La Fond, general manager of Gurnee Mills, an outlet mall north of Chicago, said on Saturday that floor traffic rose more than 16 percent on Friday from year-ago levels and that preliminary sales estimates among the 220 stores at the mall ranged from flat to more than double 1998 levels, she added. ''I think we had a very solid start to the holiday season,'' La Fond said. ''We don't have a crystal ball, but as long as the weather stays (mild), and with the strong economy, it should be one of the best holiday seasons ever experienced.'' William Ford, senior adviser to First DataCorp.'s (NYSE:FDC - news) TeleCheck Services Inc., said its sampling showed a 6.4 percent increase in same-store sales on Friday versus a year ago. ''These are amazing numbers. This is the best start that I have seen in the last five years,'' Ford said. TeleCheck, the world's largest check authorization company, sampled 23,000 of more than 250,000 locations. UNIFORM RESULTS ACROSS U.S. He said the data indicated the gains resulted from an increase in shoppers and were uniform across the United States, spurred partly by good weather. Internet traffic also surged as consumers pointed and clicked their way through Web sites, browsing for holiday deals, retail analysts said. ''I think it was huge. Toys had a huge couple of days (as did) software, categories we thought would be strong,'' said Allen Weiner, vice president of analytical services for Internet rating service Nielsen/NetRatings in New York. ''The cautionary tale is that this is probably the start of some huge traffic spikes and I hope that companies have their act together infrastructure-wise to meet this,'' Weiner said. Nielsen/NetRatings monitors traffic on five major sites in each of 10 retail categories including apparel, auctions, electronics, malls, software and toys. Shoppers were hot on the trail of Pokemon, the cartoon character that is the star of trading cards, television shows and a new movie. ''Anything Pokemon from bedsheets to trading cards to toys'' got snatched up at Target stores, said Susan Eich, spokeswoman for Minneapolis-based Dayton Hudson Corp. (NYSE:DH - news), the nation's fifth largest retailer, which owns Target, Marshall Field's and Mervyn's. Department stores also reported brisk sales of cashmere sweaters, candles, candlesticks and millennium-related products including Waterford crystal collectible glasses, Eich said. ''People are getting ready for the millennium parties,'' said John Konarski, vice president of research with the International Council of Shopping Centers. ''And because of that you will see a lot of cashmere, satin, those kinds of materials that are rich, luxurious.'' The boom in Internet shopping was noted on Saturday by President Bill Clinton, who used his weekly radio address to tout the benefits of electronic commerce, which he predicted about 4 million American families would use for the first time this year to buy at least some holiday gifts. The White House cited projections that Internet shopping would total as much as $9.5 billion this holiday season and could exceed $1.4 trillion by 2003. Retail analyst Kurt Barnard told CBS Radio he estimated electronic retailers would take in about $8 billion to $10 billion this year versus $180 billion for traditional retailers.