Thanksgiving weekend was a turkey for retailers — and now it’s time for a game of chicken.
Wintry weather has piled on top of an unusually short holiday shopping calendar this year, keeping consumers away from malls and forcing stores to mull steep discounts in the final seven days before Christmas.
“The consumer, having been trained to wait for deep discounts, appears to be holding back this holiday season,” said Richard Jaffe, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus.
Snow and ice whipped retail chains across the Midwest and Northeast last week, causing store traffic to tumble nearly 20 percent, ShopperTrak, a Chicago-based research firm, said Tuesday.
“Last weekend’s extreme weather prevented many consumers from completing their holiday shopping,” said ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin.
Accordingly, analysts expect a last-minute blitz at malls nationwide this coming weekend. But some warn that the rush may be too little, too late.
“We believe the promotional environment is even more heated than many retailers anticipated,” Jaffe said.
Holiday shopping had a disappointing start, with sales off 3 percent during the Black Friday weekend, according to the National Retail Federation.
Nevertheless, not all experts are downbeat. While malls got snowed under last weekend, online shopping surged, noted Scott Bernhardt, president of Planalytics, a weather consultant to retailers.
“A whole lot of that volume that went out of the mall went right onto the computer,” Bernhardt said.