Crisis strikes a blow on Santa's activities

Christmas did not bring the U.S. retailers typical for this time income. In 2012, pre-holiday sales growth was only 0.7 percent, while analysts expected growth of three to four percent. Retailers, who earn up to a third of their annual revenue during the Christmas period, expected that this Christmas would not be the most successful in terms of sales.

Long before the start of the Christmas season it was expected that in 2012 the growth of Christmas sales would be lower than in previous years. The National Retail Federation predicted that this time, the growth will amount to 4.1 percent compared to last year's results, while in 2011 the increase was 5.6 percent. 

According to the National Federation of Retailers, retail sales were to grow by 2.8 percent. The reality did not meet even these gloomy expectations. Research Company Spendingpulse announced the figure of 0.7 percent, which is very small growth.

"This has to do with the current uncertainty in the U.S. economy," Daria Pichugina, an analyst of Investcafe told Pravda.ru. "That is, if we judge by the index of consumer expectations, these expectations were not very positive. Even before the beginning of sales retailers knew about the possibility that this year they would not bring as large of an income as they usually do. Although at the very start of Christmas sales the standard rate of growth was observed, it was not sustained on later stages. This was to be expected on the market, because now people do not understand what is happening. Actually it turns out that the situation there is blown out of proportions even more than here."

According to Pichugina, simple misunderstanding of the situation by the average Americans, their fears about the situation with the fiscal policy next year and the country's economy in general are the main factors that affect retail sales.

"Despite the fact that there are good indicators on unemployment, that the housing sector is growing, that the economy seems to be recovering, and GDP for the 3^rd quarter was good, the threat of a fiscal cliff still adversely affects the markets and people, " the expert added. "People do not know how much tax they would have to pay in the next year, they do not know whether they should be saving their money and what to do with it if they have it. People are most dependent on the news. Perhaps it is hard to understand from here what is happening in the minds of the average Americans, how frightened people are with all the incoming negative information."

Pichugina expressed doubt that the current situation with the Christmas sales has anything to do with the fall in income of the Americans. U.S. experts generally confirm these findings. They also mention other factors, such as the adverse impact of the recent hurricane Sandy and the shock experienced by the Americans in connection with the tragedy in Newtown, where 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot 27 people, including 20 students of an elementary school. Most retailers expected a decline in consumer activity.

They made effort to bring the maximum number of buyers in their stores. This year set a record for the early start of sales. The traditional Christmas shopping marathon starts on "Black Friday," the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States celebrated every fourth Thursday of November. The grim name "Black Friday" is not associated with any tragic events.  

According to the most common theory, the name first emerged in Philadelphia due to the fact that on this day traffic jams would stretch for many miles. On Friday after Thanksgiving all stores open their doors early to let people purchase goods with Christmas discounts. However, lines in front of large shopping malls will still line up long before the doors are open. Many Americans are eager to shop immediately after goods go on sale while the entire range is still available.

This year, a number of large stores started Christmas sales as early as 8PM Thanksgiving Day. According to retailers, the measure was to attract more customers to the stores.

However, this did not work. Early publications of sales catalogs, special offers and online sales did not help either (the first Monday after "Black Friday" is called "Cyber ​​Monday", because on this day office workers start shopping for Christmas gifts online). Even with the Christmas discounts, stores still saw meager income.

Anastasia Garina

Pravda.Ru

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