West Virginia Retailers Association president optimistic about holiday shopping season

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Even though a national survey showed fewer people were out shopping during the Thanksgiving Weekend, what is traditionally the kickoff to the holiday spending season, total holiday retail sales through December could be up in 2014.

“The overall projection that we’re seeing nationally was 4.1 percent, which is the highest number we’ve had for several years,” said Bridget Lambert, president of the West Virginia Retailers Association.

“We’re very optimistic that this is going to be a strong season.”

According to the National Retail Federation, traffic in stores and online nationwide during the holiday weekend was down 5.2 percent while total spending reached as estimated $50.9 billion by Sunday, a decline from $57.4 billion from the same time period last year or a difference of 11 percent.

The survey estimated per-person spending during the weekend was around $380.95, representing a 6.4 percent drop from $407.02 last year.

Lambert said the decline could be connected to extended holiday shopping hours.

“A lot of consumers have demanded and retailers responded for Thursday shopping in the evening and the traffic did span a larger realm this year,” Lambert said of store openings that pushed more into Thanksgiving Day.

Many retailers also offered pre-Thanksgiving sales.

“Overall, it gave consumers more time to come into the stores and also a lot of good deals were to be had by the consumers who did venture out this weekend. Retailers rolled out some exceptionally good deals,” she said.

Numbers from the National Retail Federation showed Black Friday remained the biggest day for shoppers. Also, even before Cyber Monday, online shopping was up across the U.S.

Lambert said there is a lot of holiday shopping time left.

“We think the consumers still will be able to get a lot of good deals. Merchandise is well-stocked through the season and (they should) just keep being savvy shoppers,” Lambert said.





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