Shop Talk
Retailers, consumers and prices
Check Out Line: Smaller discounts, smaller January sales?
Check out consumers finding retailers offering smaller discounts in the days after Christmas — a possible drag on January sales.
According to a survey by America’s Research Group, 68.4 percent of consumers surveyed said they saw smaller discounts this year than last year after Christmas.
Meanwhile, 40.1 percent of those surveyed said they felt worse than they did a year ago about their financial situation, which means those smaller discounts may fail to keep shoppers buying well into January, said Britt Beemer, America’s Research Group founder.
“You never want the negative numbers to ever get above 25 percent,” Beemer said. “I just think it is a reflection of how frugal the consumer is and is going to remain in the marketplace,” he said.
Check Out Line: Snowstorm doesn’t drive shoppers online
Check out how the East Coast’s weekend snowstorm might not have been a boon to online shoppers.
A survey of 1,000 U.S. shoppers over the weekend found that the convenience of shopping from the warmth of their homes and the bask of their computer screens was not enough to lure them away from bricks and mortar stores even in whiteout conditions.
Check Out Line: Train wreck Christmas?
Check out a rather glum outlook for the Christmas shopping season.
Last year, holiday sales notched their worst performance in nearly four decades.
This year, they could be a “train wreck” says Britt Beemer, founder and CEO of America’s Research Group.
The rich (in Bentonville) get richer
Wal-Mart has been the big retail winner in the recession and new data suggests that it could keep some of its gains after the economy recovers. 
According to a survey by America’s Research Group, 9.3 percent of consumers surveyed said they had shopped at Wal-Mart for the first time this year.
Of those, a whopping 98.9 percent said that they would shop there again and the same number said they would continue to shop there once the recession ends.
“We’re watching the total domination for this retailer called Wal-Mart,” America’s Research founder and CEO Britt Beemer said.
The results were from a series of questions America’s Research asked on behalf of Reuters during the group’s weekly holiday shopping survey.
(Reuters photo)
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