Weekend Sales Ring Up Cheer for Retailers

A smattering of reports from retailing’s front lines Sunday reinforced merchants’ hopes that the holiday shopping season will be merry this year.

San Francisco-based Visa USA said Sunday that shoppers using Visa credit and debit cards spent more than $3.4 billion in stores on Friday and Saturday, up 9% from a year ago.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, said sales hit $1.52 billion at its U.S. Wal-Mart stores, Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets on Friday, a single-day record and a 6.3% increase over the previous year.

ShopperTrak, a Chicago firm that collects sales data from 30,000 stores nationwide, said sales rose 4.8% on Friday compared with a year ago. That was less than half of last year’s increase for the same day, when spending leaped 12.4%.

Last year’s booming start had merchants hopeful of the best holiday season in decades, but the trend quickly fizzled. Sales rose just 2.2% for November and December combined, and sales at stores open at least a year -- a key measure of retail health -- rose just 1% last December, the weakest gain in three decades.

Still, industry experts thought the 4.8% gain, coming against strong numbers for last year, was a positive sign. And merchants remain hopeful that a variety of factors, from improved economic conditions to heavy promotions, will lead to a higher tally when the 2003 holiday season is in the books.

The strongest magnets luring shoppers over the long Thanksgiving weekend were low-priced electronics, such as DVD players and digital cameras, along with toys such as Barbie and Hokey Pokey Elmo dolls, said Ellen Tolley of the National Retail Federation, an industry trade group.

“Those two categories seem to be driving shoppers into the stores,” she said. “Once they got there, they picked up apparel, books and other gifts.”

Wal-Mart’s strong numbers could be a sign that discounters are likely to lead the retail pack again this year.

“The Wal-Mart strength is part and parcel of the ongoing story of discounters picking up market share,” said Michael Niemira, lead consultant for ShopperTrak. An earlier survey by the NRF showed that 75% of those polled planned to shop in discount stores this holiday season.

Merchants at the other end of the spectrum also are hopeful. In Beverly Hills, 21 of 30 stores surveyed said sales increased the day after Thanksgiving, and only four reported a decline, said Todd Steadman, director of economic development for the city’s Chamber of Commerce. Thirteen said sales exceeded expectations.

Steadman attributed the results to tax cuts, low interest rates, plumper stock portfolios and the weather.

“We had a picture-perfect day that lured customers out,” he said.

Merchants that were advertising heavily or touting unusual promotions seemed to catch shoppers’ attention.

J.C. Penney Co.’s advertising circular was 20 pages this year, twice as big as in 2002. Nordstrom Inc. stores handed out 300 “gold keys” to early shoppers that they could use to unlock boxes placed throughout the store, allowing five of the customers to snag gift cards worth $150.

“That’s the first time they’ve ever done anything like that,” said Janet LaFevre, marketing director at the Glendale Galleria, which has Nordstrom and JCPenney as anchor stores.

Nationwide, the strong Christmas selling-season kickoff bolsters the NRF’s prediction that total sales will rise 5.7% in November and December, compared with 2002, when retailers posted their weakest gains in a decade.

Steve and Linda Bartholomew have done their part to boost sales. The Palm Desert couple shop all year for Christmas presents for others, saving the day after Thanksgiving to buy for one another.

“We go crazy,” said Linda Bartholomew, 59. “And that’s probably the only thing we go crazy about.”

Friday they hit South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, then moved on to Fashion Island in Newport Beach and to the Galleria at Tyler in Riverside before circling back to the Westfield Shoppingtown Palm Desert. They bought clothes and shoes for each other -- and couldn’t resist toys and tickets to Disneyland for their three granddaughters.

“Then we came home and died,” said Steve Bartholomew, 62, regional manager for Fendi watches.

The Bartholomews said they save money throughout the year to cover their holiday spending, which this year amounted to more than $5,000, and charge little.