Sales fail to impress shoppers
Blame it on the recession. Or the slushy roads.
Whatever the reason, post-Christmas crowds at Seattle-area malls Friday seemed to pale in comparison with previous years.
Storefront signs giving ground of hope big bargains drew mixed reviews from shoppers already regular to half-off sales, and many said they merely were exchanging items or redeeming gift cards.
“Here’s 60 and an additional 10,” said Jenny Goebel, from Des Moines, referring to the percentage markdowns on Christmas-themed tableware at Macy’s in downtown Seattle.
“We analogous the 50 and additional 50,” joked Goebel, who was shopping with her sister-in-law Andrea Marchel.
The 2008 holiday shopping season is expected to turn up the weakest sale results in decades as consumers worry about everything from rising joblessness to declining stock portfolios, and retailers now must try to require room according to new, spring merchandise.
At Bellevue Square, shoppers who arrived midmorning Friday had their choice of prime parking spaces. Inside, shoppers jammed the Apple supply as well as Nordstrom, which started its half-yearly men’s sale.
Otherwise, signs offering up to 60 percent off attracted mostly lookers and the masses seeking exercise after being couped up at home for the past small in number days.
Britt Beemer, a consumer algebraist with America’s Research Group in Orlando, Fla., related he thinks retailers have carried put on about totally the price-slashing they have power to do without “just giving begone the farm.”
“The problem is,” he said, “more than 30 percent of consumers are worried in regard to their jobs. When people are worried about their jobs, they move into a survival mindset, meaning they uncorrupt cease spending.”
David Koch, a theater director strolling through Pacific Place in downtown Seattle with his wife, Susan, and their 5-year-old daughter, Quincy, reported he checked to the end Nordstrom’s sale but stopped short of buying anything, concluding “maybe I really don’t need one more shirt.”
“Theaters are cutting back on the number of productions they be sufficient, and we’re watching our loneliness funds lessen,” Koch said, explaining his personal financial outlook.
Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008563486_retail27.html?syndication=rss
