Late Gift Shoppers Lift Retail From December Lull
By David Moin
Crowds descended on malls and downtown shopping districts last weekend, pulling retailers out of their early December lull and building anticipation for some serious last-minute gift shopping through the Super Saturday weekend ahead.
Rain and winds hit much of the East Coast over the weekend, impacting traveling, but barely impeding the shopping. . . .
“The warm temperatures and overall dry conditions this week, particularly on Super Saturday, will support foot traffic into malls, shopping centers and restaurants. But the West Coast may be an exception here, which begins the week warm and will cool down to below last year by end of week and also have rainfall in major markets and snowfall in higher elevations,” said Gold, of Planalytics.
Gold said that Los Angeles will be in the 60s and 70s this week, and will cool down by late week. “Rainfall will be the bigger story there, particularly mid-week, but clearing by late week/Super Saturday.”
Through much of the country, warmer conditions compared to last year will suppress the year-over-year demand for seasonal categories, Gold said. “Chicago will have temperatures in the 40s for much of this week, which is more than 20 degrees warmer than last year. New York City will begin the week warm, in the 60s, and cool down by the end of the week, although it will still have temperatures warmer than last year…From a comp perspective, the same retail week last year was the coldest since 2000 across the U.S.” . . .