Early holiday shoppers help season's sales rise
NEW YORK - The 2010 holiday shopping season was the best in four years, as a strong November more than offset spending that tapered off in December.
NEW YORK - The 2010 holiday shopping season was the best in four years, as a strong November more than offset spending that tapered off in December.
The strength of overall holiday sales suggests a recovery in consumer spending, even though the December figures reported Thursday by major chains were disappointing.
Also Thursday, the government said new applications for unemployment benefits had risen by 18,000 last week. But that was not enough to reverse a downward trend that suggests employers will accelerate hiring in coming months.
For retailers, early holiday discounts, which started in late October, drove big sales as the season began but also had shoppers finishing more of their gift-buying before December. A lull early in December and the snowstorm Dec. 26 in the Northeast also took bites out of sales.
From Oct. 31 through Saturday, revenue at stores open at least a year - a key retail measure known as same-store sales - rose 3.8 percent over a year earlier, according to an index compiled by the International Council of Shopping Centers. That was the biggest increase since 4.4 percent in 2006.
The index tailed off to a 3.1 percent increase in December after a 5.4 percent rise in November.
Retailers based in the Philadelphia area reported that sales had risen slightly. Destination Maternity Corp. said its December same-store sales had been up 0.4 percent over December 2009. Urban Outfitters Inc. said that same-store revenue had been flat for November and December, but that sales including online and catalog sales had risen 5 percent. Bon-Ton Stores Inc. said comparable-store sales had been up 0.1 percent for the last five weeks of the year.
Nationwide, the holiday season marked a return to prerecession spending in many product categories, analysts said. Online purchases and spending on groceries, auto parts, and clothing are now above the prerecession peak, according to MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse, which tracks all transactions, including cash.
Jewelry, home furnishings, and luxury goods are still below peaks, according to the data service.
