Business

Holiday shoppers
by Claudia Sonea

Despite credit crunch and a sluggish housing market, retailers had a very good weekend and crowds of shoppers took the stores by assault on Friday due to the holiday sales. However, Frederick Crawford, managing director at AlixPartners, a turnaround consulting company, said that it's a temporary behavior, that people had their specific list and once their presents were at a price they considered a bargain, they bought it. Among the most hunted stores for bargains were electronics chains like Best Buy Co. and discounters such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp, popular-priced stores like J.C. Penney Co. and Kohl's Corp. Furthermore, although toys are considered to be a thing of the past due to the wonder-box, the computer, Toys "R" Us Inc. and other toy stores drew a very good turnout. Toys "R" Us chairman and CEO Jerry Storch stated that for its 101 early morning specials (Friday) the revenues very good and the traffic on Saturday and Sunday was more than satisfying. Internet sales firm also confessed to be happy about the gains; Internet research firm comScore Inc. reported a 22 percent gain in online sales on the day after Thanksgiving and foretold that online sales would exceed $700 million online Monday. The extended programs, including midnight openings, and a blitz of early morning specials Friday, lured the shoppers (.C. Penney and Kohl's opened at 4 a.m.). Moreover, retailers offered discount to the products they knew as being on the shoppers' list like electronics, according to Gail Lavielle, a spokeswoman at Sears Holding Corp., which operates Kmart and Sears stores. Nevertheless, the fact that all the shoppers were oriented to flat-panel TVs, Global Positioning System receivers, game consoles like the hard-to-find Nintendo Wii, and digital cameras, only confirmed the suppositions of Crawford, that they indeed had a shopping list. Most of the buyers interviewed said that the things bought are mostly for children and that it was planed in advance. Holidays are coming, holidays are coming and this year everyone is expecting them breathless, especially retailers hoping that shoppers will keep the pace on buying. Don't go away, the season just started. Enjoy!

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071125/ap_on_bi_ge/holiday_shopping;_ylt=AqhBFlAPRK_DlfuPmFe59B2s0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.

posted by Blog TechSource @ 11:31 PM