Shop Talk

Check Out Line: Ready for the after-Christmas sales

Check out retailers’ post-holiday push.

Shop Talk remembers when after-Christmas sales were advertised in the newspaper on Christmas Day itself.  Times have changed a bit.  Walmart is already letting you know what deals will be available, including ones that could lead you to spend more at its stores.

J.C. Penney, meanwhile, said it would open its doors at 5 a.m. on the day after Christmas, the earliest start ever.  While online shoppers get 99-cent per item shipping, J.C. Penney is still going a little old school.  Those who get its Christmas Day newspaper circular will get good ol’ coupons to use in stores.

So what are the deals?  Let’s take a quick look at Walmart.  Right now, you can buy the Xbox 360 Arcade Console for $199.  If you wait until Dec. 26, you get it for the same price plus a $50 gift card.  It’s all part of the retailer’s “After-Christmas Week of Savings” push.

But we checked.  That $8 Zhu Zhu Pet special only runs through today.  Parents, you’ve been warned.

Also in the basket:

Personal spending and income rose in November

Kmart embraces the ghost of Christmas past

Written by Tom Hals

As its rivals plan aggressive discounts on flat-panel TVs and round the clock hours to lure in recession-weary shoppers, Kmart is sticking with what worked, even if it is what worked 40 years ago.   Chief Marketing Officer Mark Snyder, who joined the company last year just before the holiday season, said the chain had no major new initiatives this year but plans to “build on the successes” of 2008.    In other words, a fresh spin on layaway plans and Blue Light Specials, and of course the deep discount days that are a retailing standard this time of year.   One new offering includes a Christmas club, a staple of 1950s household budgeting that only deepens the impression that Kmart is rushing into its past to find the future.   The goal is to help households crushed by mounting debt to “leverage their cash,” or in other words, pay when credit is no longer available, he told us.   The chain may be onto something.  Kmart’s same-store sales for the quarter ended Oct. 31 rose 0.5 percent, only the second quarterly increase it has posted since 2001.   A recent visit to a Pennsylvania Kmart did not turn up any blaring lights or calls of “attention Kmart shoppers.”  It did show that some elements of Kmart’s past are more easily forgotten.   Asked by this reporter, the outgoing and helpful staff tried to locate Martha Stewart-branded housewares, possibly the last as their long-standing partnership ends this year.    Another member of staff joined the hunt until a manager reminded everyone that Martha Stewart’s final inventory was sold out the week before, not with blue lights but helped by clearance prices. Like those found at Wal-Mart.

(Reuters photo)

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.

According to the latest Consumer Mind Reader survey released by America’s Research Group and UBS, 81 percent of respondents said they are pressured by family debts, forcing many to shop less and spend less. 

 “The data foretells a very scary Christmas shopping season with consumers radically cutting back at a time when retailers need shoppers to shore up sagging retail sales,” Beemer said. 

“I am fearful Christmas will be a retail train-wreck this year.”

Earlier this week, Beemer told Reuters that U.S. consumers are still cautious about eating at restaurants and are not planning to loosen the purse strings for holiday spending this year despite signs the economy is improving.