Reuters Blogs

Shop Talk

Retailers, consumers and prices

09:12 October 6th, 2009

Check Out Line: Holiday doldrums?

Posted by: Jessica Wohl
Tags: Shop Talk, , , ,

RETAILTRAFFIC/Check out the latest retail forecast.

The National Retail Federation expects U.S. holiday sales to fall for the second consecutive year, but this year’s drop should not be as steep as it was last year.

The retail industry trade group expects retail sales in November and December combined to slip 1 percent to $437.6 billion.  Last year, such sales fell 3.4 percent to $441.97 billion.

Last month, the International Council of Shopping Centers took a more bullish tone.  That group said U.S. holiday season sales should rise about 1 percent to 2 percent.

Taking a look back, analysts expect to see that September sales at stores open at least a year fell 1 percent, on average, at the 30 retailers tracked by Thomson Reuters.  Meanwhile, U.S. chain store sales fell 1.9 percent last week, according to data from Redbook Research.

We’ll find out about September sales later this week, but even Santa will have to wait a few more months to see if either trade group was right about holiday spending.

Also in the basket:

Pepsi Bottling profit tops view, shares up

Tesco sees gradual recovery, food prices flat

Singer Lily Allen joins Chanel fashion romp

Homeowners reject frills like media rooms, study finds

(Reuters photo)

3 comments so far

[...] National Retail Federation expects U.S. holiday sales to fall for the second consecutive year, but this year’s drop should not be as steep as it was last [...]

- Posted by Milking the bull : Galt Gone Wild

From the retailers we have interviewed for our website http://www.start-a-business-faq.com, if sales are only off 1% this holiday season, they will pop the corks on the champagne.

RonD

- Posted by Ron Derven

[...] we mentioned on Shop Talk this morning, the National Retail Federation expects total holiday sales this year to fall 1 [...]

- Posted by This year, a Christmas of blue jeans, not Blu-rays | redneck-home-improvement.com

Post Your Comment

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture. Click on the picture to hear an audio file of the word.
Click to hear an audio file of the anti-spam word

House Rules:
  • We moderate all comments and will publish everything that advances the post directly or with relevant tangential information
  • We try not to publish comments that we think are offensive or appear to pass you off as another person, and we will be conservative if comments may be considered libelous information.