Retailers: WIMPS !!! You let 2 feet of snow prevent you from Christmas shopping?....You SUCK !!!!

[marmar]

Retail Sales Slow as East Coast Storm Keeps Shoppers at Home
By Allison Abell Schwartz


Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. retail sales rose at the slowest pace in 15 weeks after record snowfalls shut stores early and kept consumers at home during one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

Sales at stores open at least a year climbed 0.4 percent in the week ended Dec. 19 from a year ago, the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said today in a statement. Sales in December will rise about 2 percent, Michael Niemira, chief economist of the New York-based ICSC, reiterated today.

Super Saturday, the last Saturday before Christmas that in many years has been highest volume shopping day of the year, was a “super disappointment,” Niemira said. Retailers may be able to make up for sales they lost from the weekend’s East Coast storm by extending promotions into the few days before Christmas, according to Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst with NPD Group Inc.

“Retailers will pull out all the stops this week to make up for it,” Cohen said yesterday in a Bloomberg Television interview.

The National Retail Federation, a Washington-based trade group, said the storm’s impact wasn’t enough to prompt it to change its forecast for a 1 percent drop in holiday sales. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aryrmlYZLcKU&pos=5

[MineralMan]

1. Good luck to 'em. We've got snow forecast, beginning Wednesday

and running through Christmas day. The last-minute shoppers are pretty much screwed here in Minnesota.

I'm planning a lot of snowblowing and shoveling. When I'm not doing that, I'll be cooking the Christmas feast and shuttling people from here to there in my evil SUV.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here.

[LiberalFighter]

2. Well to be fair if the stores had stayed open the consumers might still be shopping.

[T Wolf]

3. You know, I just don't get this angle. Do they think that, because of the snow, Dad

is NOT going to go out one night this week and buy junior his Gameboy , etc?

I can just see Xmas morning.

Susie and Johnny come running downstairs, only to find a tree surrounded by nothing?

Dad greets them, saying, "You know, Susie. I wanted to buy you that Jonas Brothers DVD but you saw that Daddy had to shovel all that snow last weekend. You'll just have to wait until your birthday."

"Stop crying, Johnnie, you spoiled brat. I am limping around on these crutches because I fell down while I was out shoveling snow so you could go sledding. Now dry up and help your sister put away the ornaments."

Yep, that's how it will go down.