Post Holiday Sales Fizzle

“Black Friday 2″, as it had been dubbed by industry watchers, turned out to be a major dud.

Most retailers usually make about 14% of their holiday-season sales during the final week of of the year, according to C. Britt Beemer, CEO of America’s Research Group. It would seem, however, that “the 14 percent can’t change the 86 percent that went before it.”

Gift card sales slumped this season and those often help pad those end-of-the-month purchases. Beemer suspected that most transactions this week would be exchanges of products rather than actual new sales.

Job losses and economic troubles have forced shoppers to cut expenses. Also, major winter storms this season have prevented many from getting out this year.

Preliminary data from SpendingPulse, a sub-division of MasterCard Advisors that tracks total sales paid for by credit card, checks and cash, shows that sales dropped between 5.5% and 8% during this holiday shopping season as opposed to last year.

Sales of women’s clothes fell about 23% and men’s clothing sales fell by over 14%.  Footwear sales fell 13.5% while electronics’ sales and appliances were off even more sharply with a 27% decline over last year.

Ho ho ho, indeed.

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