Yoshiko Futagawa Pettit

Anna Gatcha

By MARQUES G. HARPER mharper@leader.net
 Tuesday, December 25, 2001 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 12B 





With only hours to spare before Christmas, last-minute holiday shoppers
made their final treks to the shopping malls, grocery stores and other
specialty shops in the region. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Nationwide crowds, however, were thinner than some merchants had expected
and the mood was more subdued, casting a cloud on the end of a shopping season
that's already expected to be the weakest in at least a decade. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Unseasonably warm weather, a widespread sense of sadness in the aftermath
of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and economic jitters have kept customers
away from stores, whose sales were already hurt by a consumer spending
slowdown during the past year. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Consequently, merchants are desperately counting on more first-time
procrastinators like Marcia Maxwell from Brooklyn, N.Y., and Pat Sterle from
West Bend, Wis., both of whom hadn't made holiday shopping a top priority
earlier in the season. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``I just wasn't in the mood,'' said Maxwell, who went out for the first
time this past weekend, buying software games for PlayStation2 and board games
at Toys R Us as well as sweaters at Banana Republic. She planned to head back
out to Toys R Us to pick up a few more toys. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``All of a sudden it wasn't so important to get the shopping done,'' said
Sterle, who was one of the few shoppers at a Target store in Milwaukee on
Monday. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In Northeastern Pennsylvania, for people like Dave Green, who manages Al's
Seafood on Route 309 near the big brown-and-white cow, it's the last-minute
shopper who truly matters. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Green came to work a half hour earlier than usual on Monday morning. And,
he discovered he wasn't alone. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Already waiting for him were six or seven cars belonging to customers for
his lobster tails, shrimp and crab legs. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Green said business so far this holiday season has been down a bit. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But for much of Christmas Eve, his off-the-road shop was busy with
customers - some of whom Green might see only this time of year. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``They are not buying quite as much as they did before,'' said Green, of
Frackville, standing outside in the cold near a converted box-trailer where
fish, coleslaw and other types of seafood are sold. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Green said he suspects more people will be willing to spend $5.99 to $14.99
per lobster tail for New Year's Eve dinners. And that's why he's betting on
the end of the week to get more customers. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``I believe people are watching their money and the economy,'' he said. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Christmas Eve is not typically a big sales generator, accounting for less
than 4 percent of overall holiday sales, according to C. Britt Beemer,
chairman of Charleston, S.C.-based America's Research Group. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But, he noted, the holiday will be even less significant this year because
more people will be focused on attending church services and spending more
time with family. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 With many retailers realizing that the pre-Christmas season is a wash-out,
merchants are now turning to the last week of December to recoup some of the
lost holiday sales. Beemer expects even deeper discounts to clear out
merchandise, making way for spring receipts. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The tempered spending followed disappointing sales performance and shopper
turnout at the nation's malls this weekend, despite heavy discounting and
advertising blitzes. The weekend before Christmas is usually one of the
biggest shopping periods of the season. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Merchants typically see a sales surge in the final seven days before
Christmas, whose share has been increasing during the past decade. However,
customers remained frugal, scouring for bargains and continuing to focus on
home-related merchandise, like DVD players, game consoles and home
furnishings. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Consequently, Jeff Feiner, managing director of Lehman Brothers, now says
that most of the 22 retailers he tracks will not meet their most modest sales
forecasts. Furthermore, even for those that do, their sales will come at the
expense of heavy discounting, further eroding profit margins. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The Associated Press contributed to this story. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Marques G. Harper, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7324. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

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