Holiday

shopping

continues

After-Christmas sales, gift card spending

extend season

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- A Saturday afternoon in town with hardly any activity downtown or along Broadway seems rare.

A normal Saturday afternoon in New Ulm typically has far more people walking the sidewalks and shopping the shops.

But this Saturday -- Christmas Day -- found downtown and most of New Ulm quiet.

Some local retailers will be open today to take returns and perhaps offer bargains to post-Christmas shoppers.

The same scenario could easily be happening around the country. A survey by the National Retail Federation found that the average U.S. shopper had about 82 percent of its Christmas list checked off by last Sunday, spending an average of $511.77 on the holidays this year. The group continues to project that holiday sales will increase 4.5 percent this year to $219.9 billion nationwide.

"Retailers know that the holiday season is far from over," said Tracy Mullin, president of the federation. "With Christmas falling at the end of the week and many offices closed on Christmas Eve, consumers have extra incentive to procrastinate this year."

On a local level, Rollo Lentz, manager of the New Ulm Herberger's store, also felt that Christmas falling on a Saturday was a big factor in this year's holiday shopping season, even though customer traffic in the store was good compared to 2003.

"It makes a big difference when more people take days off," he said.

Overall, retails in New Ulm seem to have had a holiday season that was on a par with 2003. The number of people shopping in New Ulm is about the same as last year although the amount spent has fallen slightly, said New Ulm Chamber of Commerce Director Chris Hiller.

"From what I see, it looks like it's going to be a good year for downtown," said Jack Gronholz, chair of the New Ulm Business and Retail Association. "I see lots of people. I see lots of cars and I see lots of people in the stores, so I'm assuming sales are going well."

"Though a large percentage of shopping has been completed, many sales have not been recorded due to heavy purchasing of gift cards, which are not recorded until merchandise is redeemed," said Phil Rist, vice president of consumer market intelligence firm BIGresearch. "Most consumers will have their shopping completed by Christmas Day, but will head out after Christmas to take advantage of discounted merchandise and spend gift cards."

The final days before Christmas, as well as post-holiday business, boosted in part by gift sales, are becoming increasingly important for retailers.

Even though Christmas Eve and the days leading up to New Year's Eve aren't traditionally big sales generators, merchants are hoping for big sales.

Many mid-to-low-priced retailers like Target are seeking to lure shoppers with expanded hours and big markdowns at the season's end. The New Ulm Target store, which is normally open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. most Sundays, will open at 7 a.m. Sunday and close at 11 p.m. today.

Lentz said he anticipates a big return day today at Herberger's.

"Tons of people shop on Sunday and we're planning big after-Christmas stuff. We will open at 7 a.m. so it's going to be busy," he said. "