Getting your player ready...
NEW YORK — Retailers elated by stronger-than-expected holiday sales are expected to report today that they saw an unintended consequence in January: sales up only 1 percent from last year by one measure.
Stores ordered so conservatively for the holidays that they ended December with relatively little excess inventory — and less than usual to mark down in January. As a result, some stores pushed up deliveries of spring items from jumpsuits to sandals. But bargains were all that most consumers wanted.
Shoppers “rewarded themselves” during the Christmas season, said Stifel Nicolaus & Co. analyst Richard Jaffe. But by last month, he said, shoppers were “hunkering down” again. The Associated Press
