Holiday sales down for third week

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NEW YORK (AP) — Stores are hoping Americans who’ve beentight-fisted with their money will get the
last-minute itch to buy inthe final week of the holiday shopping season.After a strongstart to the season,
sales at stores have fallen for three consecutiveweeks. That puts a lot of pressure on retailers to get
shoppers intostores in the final days of what’s typically the busiest shopping periodof the year.Sales at
U.S. stores dropped 3.1 percent to $42.7billion for the week that ended on Sunday compared with the same
weeklast year, according to ShopperTrak, which tracks data at 40,000locations. That follows a decline of 2.9
percent and 0.8 percent duringthe first and second weeks of the month, respectively.Thenumbers, which don’t
include online sales, are another challenge in whathas largely turned out to be a disappointing holiday
shopping seasonfor stores.The two-month period that begins on Nov. 1 is important forretailers because they
can make up to 40 percent of their annual salesduring that time.Retailers started the season
cautiouslyoptimistic after a strong start in November — ShopperTrak said saleswere up 3.4 percent for the
month. But in the final days, retailers havefound it increasingly hard to attract shoppers into stores even
thoughsome like Toys R Us have rolled out big discounts, while others likeKohl’s have stayed open for dozens
of hours straight since the weekend.Noneof that seemed to lure shoppers. At the Garden State Plaza Mall
inParamus, N.J. on Saturday, Abercrombie & Fitch, AnnTaylor andExpress had 50 percent sales, while
Aeropostale was discounting itsentire assortment up to 70 percent.Still, Barbara Jackson, 45,was spending
cautiously. She said she’s capping her holiday budget at$1,500 — half of what she spent last year. That’s
because Jackson, anaide to the elderly, is earning less than last year."I am more budget
conscious," Jackson said.KarenMcDonald,a spokeswoman at Taubman Centers, which owns or operates
28malls, estimated that business forthe week that ended Sunday wasunchanged to mid-single digit percentage
growth compared with a yearago."I felt for sure it was going to be gangbusters. But it was just
OK," McDonald said.Shoppertrakestimates that holiday sales at stores so far are up 2 percent to$218.4
billion compared with the same period last year. That’s below the2.4 percent forecast for the two-month
period, but the company isstanding by that estimate with a few days left before Christmas and alittle over a
week before the season ends.The National RetailFederation, the nation’s largest retail group, also said it’s
stickingwith its forecast that sales in stores and online will be up 3.9 percentto $602.1 billion.But even
online sales, which had been a brightspot for much of the season, aren’t growing at the expected pace.Online
spending from home and work desktop computers in the U.S. fromNov. 1 through Dec. 15 was up 9 percent from
the same period last yearto $37.8 billion, according to the most available data from comScore.That’sbelow
the 14 percent growth that the Internet research firm isforecasting for the season. The company still
expects online sales togrow at that pace for the season, but the category only accounts forabout 11 percent
of spending in the three months that include theholiday shopping season.Final sales figures for the holiday
shopping season are expected in January.Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rightsreserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten orredistributed.

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