Word: holidays
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...next venerable institution to fall victim to the financial crisis could be Santa Claus. Retailers are bracing for a holiday shopping season that is shaping up to be the worst in recent memory, as debt-ridden consumers cut back spending amid rising fears that the U.S. is in a major recession...
...National Retail Federation (NRF), the world's largest retail trade association, projects that November and December sales will rise only 2.2% to $470 billion, an increase that would fall well below the 10-year average of 4.4% holiday sales growth and would mark the most sluggish season since 2002, when sales rose only 1.3%. Scott Krugman, NRF spokesman and vice president, says the dismal forecast should surprise no one. "It is surprising that we had a year's worth of bank consolidations on Wall Street in a week, but low consumer confidence isn't," Krugman says. "This was a slow...
...Holiday shopping is crucial for retailers because it accounts for as much as 40% of their annual sales. But consumer confidence has plummeted as Americans get squeezed by a housing crisis, rising unemployment rates, high food and gas prices, and a stock-market meltdown. Nine in 10 consumers believe the economy is in a recession, according to the most recent report of the University of Michigan Survey of Consumers. The barrage of bad news surrounding the $700 billion congressional bailout appears to have had a significant effect on shoppers' outlooks. At the end of September, 79% of consumers said they...
...something, 56% of teens say they now consider whether their parents will be able to afford it, with 42% stating that they are asking their parents for less. "If teens are exercising more restraint and curtailing what they ask for, that certainly doesn't bode well for holiday shopping," says Candace Corlett, president of WSL Strategic Retail...
...understand how the credit crunch is hitting American business - and, in turn, you - look no further than the Dog Shop, a pet-supplies and -grooming store in Washington, D.C. This holiday season, owner Jane Huelle will stock only four varieties of Christmas-cookie dog treats instead of the usual six. That's because a month and a half ago she got a letter from her credit-card company saying her line of credit was being docked by thousands of dollars...