Shopping for optimism
Consumers cautious, but state's retailers confident holiday sales will rise
By Kelly Pate Dwyer
Denver Post Business Writer
Post / Jerry Cleveland
Bag-carrying shoppers trek through FlatIron Crossing shopping center in Broomfield on Friday. The day after Thanksgiving, so-called Black Friday, is typically one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
Cassandra Pine, 32, is going much bigger on gifts this holiday. Unlike last year, now she has a job.
But her sister, Stacey Hussy, 34, is watching her budget.
Hussy, an Englewood mother of four, said she and her husband are still catching up from a layoff earlier this year.
The two sisters and their mom, Linda Pine, 54, are among the millions of shoppers who flocked to discount stores and shopping malls early Friday for retailers' annual early-bird sales.
The Pine family celebrated the countdown to Christmas in a traditional way: They pored over newspaper ads after Thanksgiving dinner, then mapped a strategy that took them to 10 stores in nine hours Friday.
But like many Americans, they are facing the holidays with a mixed bag of attitudes around one key economic indicator: their own household budgets.
Still, most retailers are upbeat that this year's sales will beat last year's dismal holiday performance.
Advertisement
"We're right about where we were last year at this time, which is what we had forecast," said Rusty Ferrie, manager of the Thornton SuperTarget.
Predictably, most of the action was in toys and electronics, where customers were loading up on DVD players, digital cameras, GPS systems, in-line skates, and laser tape measures and levels.
Once shoppers cleaned up at discount stores, they flooded the malls.
Parking lots were packed at Cherry Creek Shopping Center, and its valet lot was full by noon. All of Park Meadows was bustling.
"We are so far ahead of last year, a good 30 percent for today," Amy Kessel, manager of the Park Meadows Gymboree kids' stores, said Friday evening.
By sundown, most stores at FlatIron Crossing had met their sales expectations for the day, said Heather Drake, the mall's marketing manager.
"The jewelry stores were really full this morning, and a lot of people seem to be buying," she said. Home stores like Crate & Barrel were doing especially brisk business.
Stores around the state reported mixed results Friday.
The economy has killed some stores in Aspen, but as the snow piles up, the survivors are growing more optimistic.
"We've already done better this week than the same week last year," said Shelley Coulombe, manager of the Golden Bough custom jewelry shop. "We are counting on the economy recovering and more people traveling."
Littleton's Main Street was quieter than the malls, but certain stores, like Natural Surroundings gift shop, are destinations for locals and their holiday houseguests, said manager Martha Sidney.
"We've done pretty well," said Sidney, surveying the shop. "We were up 2 percent last year over the year before and we've noticed an increase this year."
To most, up is good enough after three years in a downturn.
"We are cautiously optimistic and I think today added to that optimism," said JoAnn Groff, president of the Colorado Retail Council, after a half-day of shopping Friday. "But I think we're sort of waiting to make sure that other shoe isn't going to drop."
Economists and retail experts are calling for a least a 5 percent gain in holiday sales nationwide, crediting stock market gains, tax credits and rising consumer confidence.
That compares with a 2.2 percent increase last year, and flat sales in Colorado.
Black Friday always counts among retailers' best shopping days, so it's a barometer of consumer mood, but far from a telltale sign of things to come, said Scott Krugman, spokesman for the National Retail Federation.
In fact, sales rose 11 percent year-over-year in 2002 for Thanksgiving Day weekend, but then fizzled, according to ShopperTrak, a Chicago research firm.
Denver Post business writers Aldo Svaldi, Kristi Arellano, Jason Blevins and Andy Vuong contributed to this report.
denverpost.com |
