Low spending levels and cautious consumers have contributed to a slow holiday shopping season so far, and some experts say it may not improve in the final days leading up to Christmas.
“If we don’t have big deals, there may be some retail museums out there,” said Britt Beemer, founder of America’s Research Group. “It blows me away that except for J.C. Penney’s or Kohl’s, I don’t see anyone screaming 40 or 50 or 60 percent off.”
Consumers for months have been saying high gasoline prices, the credit crunch and increased food bills have affected their holiday budgets.
Beemer lowered his forecast from a 2 percent increase in retail sales to 1.8 percent.
His survey of shoppers found the top five stores shopped so far are Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney, Sears, Target and Best Buy.
The National Retail Federation’s 2007 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey found that while 25 million consumers have finished their shopping, another 35 million say they haven’t started.
The NRF also found gift-card sales are up about 6 percent this year over last, but Beemer said the dollar amount on each of those cards is less than in previous years.
“It’s a matter of consumers not spending the money,” he said. “They’ve been saying for two years that if they didn’t get the deals, they weren’t going to buy, and maybe now they finally mean it.”
