ARG Report: Shoppers Holding Off until Last Minute

Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 12/14/2009 12:00:00 AM

Charleston, S.C. —

A telephone survey conducted during the first weekend of December by America's Research Group on UBS concluded that holiday sales could be lower than last year.

Among consumers that were not shopping, 95.1% said they will wait until Dec. 24 in hopes of finding more deals. They're looking for discounts of 60% to 70%, according to the ARG.

"More shoppers are waiting for better deals and stores just aren't giving them big enough discounts," said Britt Beemer, ceo and founder of ARG.

Just 3.82% of parents said they have finished shopping for their children's gifts.

Shoppers boosted their spending at Walmart, JCPenney and Kmart. The survey of 1,000 households on Dec. 5 and 6 found 27.6% of consumers said they spent the most at Walmart, up from 25.7% in 2008. Nearly 10% (9.9%) spent most at JCPenney compared to 6.5% last year. The "spent the most" ratio for Kmart rose to 5.1% from 2.6% last holiday season.

Still, Walmart was a dominant force, with 72.2% of consumers surveyed saying they shopped there for holiday compared to 69.1% in 2008.

As the season began, Beemer predicted retail sales will decline 2.9% compared to last year. He has been within a half of 1% in forecasting holiday sales in 17 of the past 18 holiday cycles.

ARG and UBS will conduct a Christmas Retail Survey every weekend through the holiday.