DENVER—Heavy discounts drew more than just last-minute Christmas shoppers to stores Wednesday in what is nevertheless shaping up to be a weak holiday season for some retailers.
Edward Tavino finished his Christmas shopping long before Wednesday but filled four shopping bags in about four hours at Cherry Creek Shopping Center, one of the top shopping destinations in Denver.
“It was all personal shopping,” said Tavino, a freelance consultant in Bangkok, Thailand. “The prices and discounts seem to be deeper in the U.S.”
He visited six stores including Calvin Klein, where a store window advertised discounts of up to 70 percent. Inside, $198 jackets and $98 sweaters were half off.
Sammie Chergo, 39, and her brother have made it an annual tradition to look for deals on Christmas Eve. They arrived at the mall around 11 a.m. Four hours later, they had a new iPhone, new shoes from Nordstrom and two bags from Eddie Bauer, where she had a gift card to spend.
“It seems like the sales after Christmas are happening right now,” said Chergo, of Denver. “It seems like it’s not as crowded as last year. We found a parking place right away.”
Before Thanksgiving, the Colorado Retail Council said it was expecting 1 to 2 percent sales growth in Colorado this holiday season from last year.
Since then, forecasters have been lowering their expectations for national sales.
Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers, expects sales at established stores for November and December will fall 1.5 percent to 2 percent from the year before. Earlier forecasts from the group were for a 1 percent drop at established brick and mortar stores.
While a line of families waited to visit with Santa at Cherry Creek, Danielle Brower of Overland Park, Kan., headed into the Tiffany & Co. store with her mother. They left empty-handed. Both did all their Christmas shopping before arriving in Colorado to be with family.
“I’d be stressed out if I had to do Christmas shopping today,” said Brower, 18.
