The Rush Was Slow
By Staff -- Gifts and Dec, 12/26/2007 7:42:00 PM
NEW YORK—The pre-Christmas sales rush is over and the initial reports say the situation at retail in the run-up to the holiday's Dec. 24 deadline was slow, as expected, with overall retail sales up 3.6 percent in the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas day, a noticeable drop from recent years.
That 3.6 percent gain, a figure tallied by MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse service that includes sales at restaurants and gas stations, was far from last year’s 6.6 percent holiday sales jump, and well off from 2005’s particularly strong 8.7 percent growth spurt. This year’s 3.6 percent figure falls to 2.4 percent if gasoline sales are factored out, according to The Wall Street Journal.
SpendingPulse’s report found that the product categories that grew fastest this year were luxury goods (excluding jewelry), up 7.1 percent, and shoes, up 6 percent. Despite a fast start, consumer electronics sales slowed considerably after at 15 percent gain on Black Friday to end up with only a 2.7 percent rise by season’s end. Toys were not specifically broken out as a product category for analysis.
Commenting on the sales results, Michael McNamara, vice president of research and analysis at MasterCard Advisors, said, “Overall, sales came in just above the lower end of the range we were expecting, maintaining the slower, modest growth we've been seeing throughout the year.” He added, “Most industry observers had adjusted their sights down, but anyone who was looking for this holiday season to kick-start a new wave of growth would find these numbers falling short of expectation,” he added.
(As reported by playthings.com)
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