US looking to upmarket Christmas
Sales up as key trading period starts
December 5 2003
There are tentative signs that US consumers are looking to up their spending as the peak Christmas sales season get underway, looking for a few holiday treats afet a year of belt tightening.
ShopperTrak, which measures retail sales, reported that Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the traditionally start of the holiday shopping season, generated about $7.2bn in sales this year, with another $5.2 bn spent the next day. The two-day total was up 5.4 percent over last year.
As US retailers released November sales, upmarket department chain Nordstrom reported a 7.4 per cent increase in November same-store sales. Sharper Image, which sells higher priced gadgets and small electronics, saw an 8 per cent rise in same-store sales.
Federated Department Stores, owner of Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s, reported same- store sales down just 0.1 per cent, better than it has achieved for most of the year and in line with its expectations
Wal-Mart reported a 3.9 per cent rise in November sales in its stores open at least a year, near the middle of the 3 to 5 per cent it had forecast, with its holiday sales got off to a slower start than expected. Wal-Mart said its December sales would be about the same as November.
JC Penney, which like Wal-Mart aims at value-motivated customers, said November same-store sales fell 0.8 per cent, but stressed the did not include strong sales over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Gap continued its strong recovery, with same-store sales up 6 per cent in November as customers responded to its strongly-advertised new winter clothing ranges.
