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Politics : THE VAST RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (5027)	12/29/2003 11:05:40 PM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6358

Mixed holiday season seen for US retailers Fri Dec 26,10:26 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - Preliminary data showed US retailers had mixed results for the critical holiday season, with some specialty and online retailers showing a big surge, but traditional stores posting lackluster sales. A day after Christmas, some retailers were announcing strong indications for holiday sales while others were licking their wounds for the season, which can represent as much as half of profits and a large chunk of sales for many stores. The biggest retailer, Wal-Mart, said it saw a late pickup in holiday purchases, but probably not enough to boost same-store sales in December above the low end of the company's prior monthly target of between three- and five-percent growth. The company said holiday sales came in even later in 2003 than in prior years. "Our sell-through in the seasonal area was better than last year," according to a Wal-Mart statement. "Customers are shopping and decorating really late and sales of trees, ornaments and gift wraps came very late in the season." But Internet leader Amazon.com said it wrapped up its busiest holiday season ever and set a single-day record with more than 2.1 million items ordered, or 24 items per second, worldwide. On the day before Christmas, Amazon said 70,000 gift certificates were ordered. And on December 15, a record 630,000 people visited the site during one 60-minute period, the company said. Most retailers will report their December sales around January 8. But several specialty retailers said they were expecting to show strong year-end sales. The Sharper Image, an upscale seller of electronics and other items, boosted its fourth-quarter profit forecast on the back of a strong season. "We are very pleased by our robust holiday sales," said Richard Thalheimer, the company's founder, chairman and chief executive officer. "While sales were very strong in all retail sales channels -- stores, Internet and direct marketing, including catalog and television infomercial -- our stores sales especially benefited from last minute shoppers and the December 20 beginning of Hanukkah." Women's clothing retailer Chico's FAS said December same-store sales are likely to meet its growth target of 18 to 21 percent. Amazon and other companies noted much higher sales of gift cards, meaning that many people won't make purchases until after the Christmas holiday. Yet since most post-holiday items are on sale -- some deeply discounted -- profit margins can be squeezed. For retailers, that means they must sell a lot more merchandise after Christmas to make up for the shortfall of full-price purchases ahead of time. The National Retail Federation had projected that holiday sales would increase 5.7 percent this year to 217.4 billion dollars, which would be the largest increase since 1999. But a week ago, the retail group said shoppers still had 30 percent of their shopping left. A survey by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and UBS Warburg suggested 4.0 percent year-over-year sales growth for the season. The Internet was expected to show strong gains this year as a sales vehicle. A report last week by Goldman, Sachs, Harris Interactive and Nielsen NetRatings showed that online shoppers spent 2.95 billion dollars during the second week in December, an increase of 48 percent from 2002. The latest weekly report brings the total spent online, excluding travel, to 13 billion this holiday season, an increase of 46 percent over last year, the report said. story.news.yahoo.com