Footwear Sales In The US Dropped By 13.5% In November

Before Christmas, many discount promotions and 24 hours of uninterrupted business have failed to pry open the pockets of the American people.

In the background of economic recession, Americans had a "shrinking" Christmas.

The International Shopping Center Association (ICSC) expects sales of Christmas holidays in the United States will drop by 1.5% to 2% over the same period this year, the worst performance since 1969.

ShopperTrack, an American shopper's travel statistics company, estimates that the number of American shoppers walking may be 9.9% lower than that of the same period last year.

Before Christmas, super Saturday (December 20th), shoppers' travel decreased by 17% compared to the same period last year.

"Obviously consumers spend money very carefully.

For businessmen, this may be the most challenging Christmas in recent decades.

Michael McNamara, vice president of MasterCard consulting, said Michael McNamara.

In fact, before Christmas, retail sales in the US were already exhausted.

The preliminary statistics released by SpendingPulse, the data service company of MasterCard consulting company in December 25th, showed that retail sales in the United States decreased by 5.5% in the same period last year, while sales in from December 1st to 24th dropped by 8% over the same period in November.

Excluding gasoline prices in the same period, the retail price fell by 2% and 4% respectively in the 40% months.

The statistics of SpendingPusle include payment by credit card, cheque and cash, which is considered a more comprehensive data of retail sales.

According to data released earlier by ICSC, US retail chain sales in November dropped by 2.7% over the same period last year, the largest monthly decline since 1957.

Strapped consumers first cut off expenses for non essentials, such as jewellery, high-end clothing and electrical appliances.

SpendingPulse data showed that luxury goods including jewellery, high-end clothing and leather goods were the weakest in sales, down 34.5% year-on-year, 26.7% in electronic appliances, 22.7% in women's wear, 14.3% in men's clothing, and 13.5% in footwear.

Expert analysis shows that the reason for the dismal sales comes from the lack of consumer confidence caused by falling house prices, soaring unemployment and economic downturn.

Since Christmas, the west coast of Seattle and Las Vegas, Chicago of central China, and Boston on the east coast have been exposed to bad ice and snow and reduced shopping trips.

On the eve of Christmas Eve in December 24th, financial reporter went to a shopping mall in Virginia Pentagon City.

At Macy s, a popular brand store, reporters saw a long queue of shoppers in the checkout and sale area of clothing and cosmetics.

Many US Department stores have extended their business hours, such as Macy 's from December 20th to Christmas Eve, extending its business hours in major city stores to 24 hours a day.

At the jewelry store, sales staff are enthusiastically speaking and promoting their customers, but with little effect.

Sales staff of Helzberg Diamonds said that the best selling items this year were tens of dollars of decorations, and some 14K platinum jewelry, while 18K platinum was almost nobody.

Electrical appliance manufacturing and retail industry is another industry that has been seriously hit.

Circuit City, the second largest appliance chain seller in the US, has recently received $1 billion 100 million in bankruptcy protection financing.

The appliance industry expects sales to fall by 50% this season.

At Apple stores, reporters saw that people bought mostly iPod and iPhone accessories, while MacBook was "looking at more and buying less".

At SONY store, Malik, a salesperson, said that he did not sell a laptop computer the same day.

At a flagship store in BestBuy, the largest electrical appliance chain store in the United States, reporters saw many people picking cheap prepaid phone package. One of the most valuable prepaid cards has been sold short.

Or because Christmas Eve has to work, perhaps the year-end bonus is not enough, the sales staff are not very emotional.

The reporter saw a customer quarrelling with a salesperson, complaining that his service attitude was "extremely bad".

Reporter saw that many high-end clothing and luggage stores were equipped with Chinese speaking salesmen.

"The locals are afraid to buy hundreds of dollars of high-grade leather bags now."

A shopping guide at Coach store said.

"Now we are counting on foreign customers, especially from Asia."

In comparison, online sales are better than physical shops.

Data from e-commerce consulting firm comScore show that from November 1st to December 21st, AOL sales amounted to $24 billion 710 million, down 1% from the same period last year.

But on the weekend before Christmas, Internet sales were almost 2 times that of last year.

Yang Jing: editor in charge