"People are just being a lot more conservative," said Maggie Howell, co-owner of a catering business in Oklahoma City. "They want crab and seafood, but they're settling for cheese displays."

Her business has declined by 20 percent in the last two months, the New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported.

That "sense of caution, " said Seattle store manager Michael Go, has impacted gift and house sales. But, there are some pockets of prosperity, the newspaper reported.

A steak house in Texas is doing well as oil prices surge. A camping store in New York City reports high sales as Europeans flock to the United States to shop.

But the mortgage crisis and job losses have slowed overall shopping.

Houses are, "the bedrock asset for the lion's share of the population of the United States," said Robert Barbera, chief chief economist of a trading and research firm.

"It's not like dot.com stocks, where I bought Webvan for 1,000 times the imaginary earnings, and now it's worth nothing ... you're talking about the value of people's houses," he said.