Holiday Consumer Shopping Up 6%

Stores around Connecticut were busy this holiday weekend, with malls reporting more traffic than last year. Retailers are looking for a significant hike in spending in the coming month, but some experts warn that consumer confidence is still low. WNPR’s Harriet Jones reports.

 

Data from the National Retail Federation shows that spending through the Black Friday weekend rose more than 6% from the same time last year. But economist Don Klepper Smith of Datacore Partners in New Haven says he’s not convinced the bump is going to last.

 

“I think there’s a lot of window shopping going on from what I saw this weekend.”

 

Klepper Smith says it’s telling that consumer confidence is down about 11% from this time a year ago.

 

“And if we look at the broadest measure of consumer spending power, namely real disposable income, or income after taxes adjusted for inflation, it’s down about 1% in Connecticut, so it says consumers are going to be very careful about how they spend and try to stretch out their dollars as much as they can.”

 

Retailers are hoping for a 3.5% rise in retail sales before the end of the year, and are prepared to offer deep discounts to make it happen. Surveys from the weekend showed shoppers returning to clothing retailers and department stores, after the big rise in spending at discount retailers that happened in the last two years. But the biggest beneficiary of any renewed spending may be online outlets which are expected to cash in as never before – there was a 28% rise in online shopping on Thanksgiving Day itself this year.

For WNPR, I'm Harriet Jones.