Lackluster Weekend Signals Trouble For Some

December 23, 2008  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in economic news on December 24, 2008 Retail industry market researcher Britt Beemer predicts that a number of prominent retailers will encounter trouble after lackluster sales in the weekend before Christmas.
Beemer, president and CEO of America's Research Group, released the results of the ARG/UBS Christmas 2008 Survey for the Dec. 20–21 weekend, which involved over 1,000 telephone interviews over the two-day period.

“Wal-Mart continued to dominate shopping this year while other Star Performers from (2007) fell short,” he said. “We will undoubtedly see more retail bankruptcies in the New Year.”
Wal-Mart earned a Star Performer designation for retaining 91.2 percent of the Christmas shoppers who visited the retail chain a year ago. However, Beemer issued a long list of poorly performing retailers that, according to the survey, retained less than 69 percent of shoppers, including Costco (68.1 percent), American Eagle (67.4 percent), Lowe's (66.7 percent), Macy's (65.4 percent), Sam's Club (65.4 percent), Belk (64.2 percent), Walgreens (61.0 percent), Dillard (55.4 percent) and Sports Authority (51.8 percent).

Beemer said sales suffered, as only 38.7 percent of those surveyed reported shopping over the final weekend before Christmas. In addition, 68.5 percent said in the weekend survey that they finished at least 90 percent of their shopping this year, the highest level since 2002.