CHICAGO, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- The post-holiday sales got into full-swing Wednesday with merchants hoping the after-Christmas frenzy can do what the pre-holiday period failed to accomplish.
Analysts said this year's holiday shopping season was the worst in a decade as the shrinking economy and terrorism worries took their toll.
TeleCheck Services Inc. reported holiday sales inched up just 2.2 percent over last year, but up from the 1.8 percent earlier predicted.
"While weather had little effect on retailing this holiday season with most of the country experiencing fairly mild conditions, economic factors played a significant role,'' TeleCheck senior economic adviser William Ford said.
Sales increased 3.1 percent last year over 1999.
TeleCheck measures sales based on same-store figures for checks written.
"It's not a good sign for retailers," said John Challenger of the executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. "Not only are sales down, profitability is down. There are going to be more store closings."
Approximately 40 percent of consumers are expected to return the gifts they received for Christmas, according to a poll by Taubman Centers Inc., which runs shopping centers around the country. Of the 3,460 people surveyed, 26 percent said they pretend to like their gifts but then stash them away, unused, while 15 percent said they recycle unwanted gifts, passing them on to someone else the following year. Eighteen percent said they use their gifts even if they don't like them.
Those who opt to return unwanted presents may find it difficult to get cash back. Edie Clark, a spokeswoman for the International Mass Retail Association, said retailers are trying to push people into exchanges and those without receipts will find store credits are all they get back -- if they get anything at all.
Tracy Zoberis of Nordstrom said the chain has a more liberal return policy than most operations.
"Ninety-eight percent of our customers are honest, so we cater our policies and our store experience to those customers who appreciate that," Zoberis said.
With bargains abounding, shoppers headed back to the malls.
"I'm shopping for next year," Carol Baldwin told CBS outside the Colonie Center Mall near Albany, N.Y. "You shop for next year and put it away."
Sales between Christmas and New Year's typically account for 10 percent of total holiday sales.
Yahoo! Inc. reported online shopping sales increased 86 percent over last year, totaling $10.3 billion, as consumers opted for the ease of Web surfing over the crush of the shopping mall. Sales benefited from discounts as deep as 75 percent from the likes of Eddie Bauer, Banana Republic and Old Navy between Nov. 23 and Dec. 24.
Wal-Mart reported holiday sales above expectations, above 6 percent. The International Council of Shopping Centers reported reported mall holiday sales up between 1 percent and 2 percent.
Overstock.com reported holiday shoppers purchased $278,000 in goods from Worldstock, which supplies items from 1,500 disabled or abused artisans in developing countries and the United States. The site provides such items as silk woven by Cambodian land-mine amputees, hand-embroidered shawls by Palestinian widows and soap made by women at a Chicago women's shelter.
"Jewelry makers in Lima, Peru, wrote ... saying they had literally wept tears of joy and danced in the streets when they learned ... customers were buying so many pieces of their hand-crafted jewelry," Overstock.com said, adding that each artisan usually has five or six dependents to support.
