If you stay open late, they will shop.
That’s the hope of desperate retailers, who — after losing much traffic to snow and ice last weekend — announced overnight or extended shopping hours in the final countdown to Christmas Day.
Macy’s Herald Square and nine other metro New York Macy’s are now continuously open till 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, Tuesday, Dec. 24.
This will be the eighth holiday season that Macy’s is offering die-hard shoppers overnight shopping before Christmas. Some Kohl’s locations will also be open round-the-clock, and so will Toys R Us in Times Square, while Target, Kmart and Nordstrom will stay open late.
Retailers are panicking after a slow start to the shorter shopping season. Expectations of warm weather in New York this weekend, as well as big-picture factors like rising home values and a record year for tourism, weigh in retailers’ favor.
Most retail analysts expect lackluster sales results, however, because of the weak economy and stagnant wages. Deep discounts on merchandise, meanwhile, are expected to dent margins and profits.
“The economy is bumping along on the bottom,” said Jim Rice, senior analyst at consultant Creditntell.
“Christmas will be mediocre and highly promotional,” he predicted.
Retailers are pulling out all the stops because consumers at all income levels are cutting back. Nearly 40 percent of shoppers surveyed by Bankrate.com plan to spend less on holiday gifts this year. This includes every age and income group the company surveys.
“People may be feeling a little more secure in their job, may see a higher balance in their 401(k) or be feeling their house is worth more, but they are not seeing more money in their paycheck, and that drives holiday sales,” said Bankrate.com senior financial analyst Greg McBride.
As the clock ticks down, retailers are looking to Sunday and Monday, two of the top 10 shopping days on the calendar, to boost business.
ShopperTrak expects a 2.4 percent increase in holiday sales overall, while the National Retail Federation expects November and December sales to rise 3.9 percent, to $602 billion.
This season of struggle for retailers marks the latest round in a long, slow effort to recover from the Great Recession. Sales adjusted for inflation and population growth are actually down 3.5 percent from the high reached in January 2006, according to Doug Short, vice president of research at Advisor Perspectives.