RETAILERS BEMOAN YULE SALES : CASH REGISTERS FAILED TO JINGLE.Byline: Rachel Beck Rachel Beck is an American reporter for the Lebanon Express in Lebanon, Oregon. Born 5 April, 1982, she was raised in Sisters, Oregon. In 2000, she graduated from Sisters High School[1]. She graduated from Vassar College with the class of 2004. Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. There was more Grinch than glory at some of the nation's largest stores this Christmas. Shoppers watched their wallets at J.C. Penney and Dayton Hudson Corp., which reported disappointing holiday sales, and at CompUSA, where second-quarter sales rose only 1.5 percent from a year ago. ``After Thanksgiving Thanksgiving annual U.S. holiday celebrating harvest and yearly blessings; originated with Pilgrims (1621). [Am. Culture: EB, IX: 922] See : America Thanksgiving national holiday with luxurious dinner as chief ritual. [Am. Pop. , everyone was jumping through hoops about this Christmas,'' said Robert F. Buchanan, a retail analyst at NatWest Securities. ``But that was a lot of baloney and we saw a slowing of consumer spending Consumer demand or consumption is also known as personal consumption expenditure. It is the largest part of aggregate demand or effective demand at the macroeconomic level. .'' The companies' stocks fell Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) World's largest marketplace for securities. The exchange began as an informal meeting of 24 men in 1792 on what is now Wall Street in New York City. . J.C. Penney was down -7/8 to close at 47-7/8, Dayton Hudson fell 1 to end at 38-1/4 and CompUSA was down 4-1/2 at 16-1/4. Store owners had been upbeat about this Christmas after suffering through a dismal season a year ago. Many thought a rebounding economy and high levels of consumer confidence would ignite lots of buying this year. Despite reports of brisk buying the first weeks of the season, many retailers failed to keep up that pace through Christmas. Steep levels of credit-card debt, foul weather and five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas contributed to the slowdown. While most retailers won't report their December sales until next Thursday, Thursday's reports suggested that the season will fall short of expectations with only slight sales gains from a year ago. ``It wasn't a great Christmas,'' said Joseph Ronning, a retail analyst at Brown Brothers Harriman. ``You have different kinds of retailers reporting disappointing numbers and that makes it hard to categorize cat·e·go·rize tr.v. cat·e·go·rized, cat·e·go·riz·ing, cat·e·go·riz·es To put into a category or categories; classify. cat where the strength was or could be.'' |
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