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Super Saturday' retail sales fell 12.6 percent compared with 2008, says ShopperTrak and foot traffic fell by 12.4 percent. ShopperTraks National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE) reported that total GAFO retail sales for December 19, the final Saturday before Christmas fell sharply. Both yearly sales and traffic fell significantly on Super Saturday as the large storm that wreaked havoc in parts of the Midwest and on the Eastern seaboard kept consumers indoors on what is traditionally the second largest spending day of the holiday season. In all, Saturday sales accounted for $6.9 billion, as opposed to $7.9 billion in 2008 and $8.7 billion in 2007. Regionally, the Northeast faired worst of all, but sales slipped in the South, Midwest, and West as well.
Mother Nature was very unkind to retailers on Saturday as the year-over-year sales decline was the largest weve seen since we began reporting this number in 2002, said Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak. We originally predicted Super Saturday would be the number two sales day of the season just behind Black Friday, with the full weekend landing just ahead of Black Friday weekend as the top performing period. But after analyzing our data following the storm, its fairly apparent neither will be the case.
According to Martin, the Super Saturday depression some retailers might be feeling doesnt necessarily mean the holiday season is a wash.
Our data shows when there is a significant weather event, shoppers spend both before and after in higher numbers and we estimate that both Friday (12/18) and Sunday (12/20) posted retail sales gains in all regions of the country, said Martin. Additionally because there are four full shopping days leading up to Christmas this year, we anticipate the Northwest and South regions will post higher spending levels this week due to pent up demand boosting sales figures for the season. Well know next week if our original prediction of a 1.6 percent sales increase with a 4.2 percent total U.S. foot traffic decline is still intact.
ShopperTrak reported GAFO retail sales for the week ending December 19 decreased 1.2 percent compared with the same period in 2008 but showed an expected 20 percent gain versus the previous week. The data was collected from a carefully drawn sample of more than 50,000 retail and enclosed mall locations throughout the United States.
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