With Christmas less than a week away, many retailers are once again relying on procrastinators to pick up the slack this weekend and help stores meet their sales goals for the holiday shopping season.
Blame the unseasonably warm weather here and across the country, or point to the fact that with Christmas falling on a Monday, shoppers know that they have a full weekend to finish their gift-buying before the holiday. But every year, it seems that shoppers find a reason to wait until the last minute.
"The general consumer consensus is that they have time," Kim Roffey, a strategist at retail consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates, told The Associated Press. "That's great for consumers but nerve-racking for retailers."
Industry sales for the week ending Dec.
9 rose 1 percent from the previous week, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. But the trade group, which today will release data for the week ending Dec. 16, also suspects that consumers are behind on their holiday shopping compared with last year.
The trend may seem at odds with the growing hype surrounding day-after-Thanksgiving sales, which draw more and more consumers each year for the unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season. But the emphasis on limited-time specials makes that day atypical.
"I wonder how much of that after-Thanksgiving phenomenon has become almost a self-fulfilling prophecy, where customers are focused on getting those deals that day and then go into hibernation," said George Hechtman, chief operating officer of Progressive Concepts, owner of the Fort Worth-based Hawk Electronics chain.
"We try to smooth that phenomenon out a little bit."
The chain's Thanksgiving circular advertises prices that are good all season, not just for a day or two. And so far, Hechtman said, business this season has been going according to plan, with customers showing healthy demand for multifunctional wireless phones with e-mail and organizational capabilities, and for Bluetooth wireless-phone accessories.
The plan, as usual, includes expectations for a last-minute push.
"I would guess that if you go into our Camp Bowie store on Saturday, you'd see a big line," Hechtman said.
John Mitchell at Leigh-Boyd, which sells antiques, furniture, fine linens and gifts at 4632 Camp Bowie Blvd.
in Fort Worth, is also expecting a big weekend.
"I think everyone has started late," Mitchell said. "I had a lady come in Saturday morning.
She bought an art piece and said, 'Well, that's my first gift.'"
Christmas ornaments, coffee-table books, picture frames and candlesticks are selling well, he said. Customers are also buying chairs or decor items as they make their last-minute preparations for entertaining on Christmas or New Year's Eve, a trend that Mitchell expects to intensify this weekend.
Among the big retail chains, Toys "R" Us aims to pull in procrastinators this week by restocking its shelves with hard-to-find toys. Recent shipments include more than 65,000 T.M.
X. Elmo dolls, 30,000 Fisher-Price's Kid Tough digital cameras and 6,000 Sony PlayStation 3 consoles.
Jerry Storch, chairman and chief executive of Toys "R" Us, said the chain is better stocked with the hottest toys in the final days before Christmas compared with years past.
"We made this an intense focus," he told The Associated Press. "We expect this week to be huge.
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