Even though a national survey
showed fewer people were out shopping during the Thanksgiving Weekend, what is
traditionally the kickoff to the holiday spending season, total holiday retail
sales through December could be up in 2014.
“The overall projection that we’re
seeing nationally was 4.1 percent, which is the highest number we’ve had for
several years,” said Bridget Lambert, president of the West Virginia Retailers
Association.
“We’re very optimistic that this is
going to be a strong season.”
According to the National Retail
Federation, traffic in stores and online nationwide during the holiday weekend
was down 5.2 percent while total spending reached as estimated $50.9 billion by
Sunday, a decline from $57.4 billion from the same time period last year or a
difference of 11 percent.
The survey estimated per-person
spending during the weekend was around $380.95, representing a 6.4 percent drop
from $407.02 last year.
Lambert said the decline could be
connected to extended holiday shopping hours.
“A lot of consumers have demanded
and retailers responded for Thursday shopping in the evening and the traffic
did span a larger realm this year,” Lambert said of store openings that pushed
more into Thanksgiving Day.
Many retailers also offered pre-Thanksgiving
sales.
“Overall, it gave consumers more
time to come into the stores and also a lot of good deals were to be had by the
consumers who did venture out this weekend. Retailers rolled out some
exceptionally good deals,” she said.
Numbers from the National Retail
Federation showed Black Friday remained the biggest day for shoppers. Also,
even before Cyber Monday, online shopping was up across the U.S.
Lambert said there is a lot of
holiday shopping time left.
“We think the consumers still will be able to get a lot of good
deals. Merchandise is well-stocked through the season and (they should) just
keep being savvy shoppers,” Lambert said.
