Last-Minute Shoppers Hunt for Bargains

The nation's shoppers - taking advantage of deep discounts and expanded hours - jammed stores over the last weekend before Christmas to try to grab a hard-to-find Wii or scoop up bargains on other items. But the spending surge may not be enough to offset what is shaping up to be a mediocre December for some retailers.

Based on early reports on Sunday, mall operators including
Macerich Co. said they were pleased with the spending spree over
the weekend, but they were still counting on Christmas Eve and
post-Christmas business to meet holiday sales goals in what has
turned out to be a nail biter of a season.

Meanwhile, even as shoppers continued to snap up flat-screen
TVs, video game software and other gadgets, benefiting stores like
Best Buy  Co., the apparel business remains challenging, analysts
said.

Ed Schmults, chief executive of toy merchant FAO Schwarz, which
operates stores in Chicago and New York, said Sunday that
pre-Christmas business is below expectations despite a sales surge
this weekend.

"It's almost kind of worth waiting and shifting through the
hustle and bustle," said Carly Moore, of Chicago, who was heading
to Macy's on the city's State Street  shopping corridor to scoop up
some discounted clothing. But she was still frustrated that she
couldn't find Nintendo 's Wii game console, after trying at least
five stores.

Valerie Glodowski of Stevens Point, Wis., who was with her
boyfriend at Wisconsin's Wausau Center Mall, said she started
holiday shopping two weeks ago and waited until the last weekend to
finish out of sheer laziness.

"I am just winging it," she said.

Many merchants, which had struggled through a sluggish December
after a strong start to the season, are counting even more on the
final days before Christmas to make their holiday goals. With the
three days prior to Christmas accounting for as much as 15 percent
of holiday sales, there's a lot of business left on the table.

Macy's Inc. is keeping several of its stores in the New York
metropolitan area, including its flagship store in Herald Square,
open until 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve. About 1,000 of Sears Holdings 
Corp.'s 1,387 Kmart stores are open for 64 hours straight,
beginning at 6 a.m. Saturday and ending at 10 p.m. on Dec. 24, for
the first time since 2002.

With Christmas falling on a Tuesday, shoppers were enticed to
wait even longer this season to finish their holiday shopping. A
challenging economy - higher gas prices and a housing slump - also
made some shoppers hold off until the final days before the
holiday. Retailers routinely discount items deeper as Christmas
draws nearer.

"The gas prices and car insurance ... is up. I would say I'm
spending less and worrying more about it," said Sondra Newton, of
Warren, Mich., who was at Oakland Mall in Troy, Mich., a suburb
outside of Detroit on Friday. "I used to just take their (her
children's) list and get the top ones on it. Now I have to think
about 'what can I get at the best deal."' Nevertheless, Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at
International Council of Shopping Centers, is sticking with his
December forecast for a 1.5 percent gain in same-store sales, or
sales at stores opened at least a year. That would mean same-stores
sales for the November-December period would be up 2.5 percent from
a year ago.

"I think when the dust settles, stores will have met
expectations, though they are modest," said Bill Martin,
co-founder of ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which tracks total sales at
more than 50,000 retail outlets. He said he is still sticking with
his 3.6 percent forecast for the November and December period,
though he added, "some retailers will do OK, and others won't."

ShopperTrak is expected to release total sales for the week
ended Saturday late on Monday.

Jerry Storch, chairman and CEO of Toys "R" Us Inc., said the
past weekend was strong, and that people were buying
"everything," from video-game software to games. He noted that
shipments of Wii are selling out as fast as Toys "R" Us gets
them, while the retailer is running out of Fisher-Price's Smart
Cycle, a stationary bike that plugs into the TV. The season's hot
video game, "Guitar Hero 3," is also hard to find.

Karen MacDonald, spokeswoman at mall operator Taubman Center
Inc., noted that on Saturday business was up in the mid-single
digits based on a spot-check of malls. Gift card sales are up in
the double digits, and "more men are out buying fragrance gift
sets and jewelry," she said.

Ken Gillette, senior vice president of operations at Macerich,
noted that the weekend was "very busy," with traffic on Saturday
up 20 percent from the previous Saturday. He said while the day
after Black Friday starts off the season, the most intense sales
volume comes in the few days before Christmas.

Still, overall holiday sales gains could come at a cost for
retailers, says Sherif Mityas, partner and central region leader at
consultancy A.T. Kearney, noting that stores discounted heavily at
the expense of margins. He believes that apparel merchants will see
their fourth-quarter profits most hurt.

For many shoppers, it paid to wait given the plentiful offerings
and good deals. The Children's Place Retail Stores Inc. was
offering three graphic T-shirts for a total of $20. Pier 1 Imports
Inc., which has been hit hard along with other home furnishings
stores by the housing slump, was offering 50 percent discounts on
candle gift sets and 35 percent price cuts on holiday potpourri.

"I got very good deals," said Nichelle Jones, of Chicago who
had purchased two shirts at Lady Foot Locker, owned by Foot Locker
Inc., winter boots and an iPod at Wal-Mart Stores  Inc.

Edison Alberto of Miami Beach, Fla., got all of his shopping
done in about an hour and a half on Friday night. He had about a
dozen gifts to buy and found them all at a mall near Miami. His
best deals, he said, were sneakers he bought for two cousins at
Champs Sports.

"I thought they were going to be $80 or up," he said. "They
were $55 each."