Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus ”“ at least at the Danbury Fair Mall.
For retailers affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age, there appeared to be signs in local store lots and checkout lines that the holiday shopping season may be better than some pundits have predicted.
At Danbury Fair Mall in mid-November, as a long line formed in the central foyer for children to present their wish lists to Santa Claus, parents were clearly putting their credit and debit cards to use ”“ even at the mall”™s food court, perhaps a luxury that budget-minded families might be expected to skip in a downturn.
It makes for a perplexing holiday shopping season locally heading into Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year. Even as consumers fret over job security, year-end bonuses and plunging values of their homes and stocks, they have gotten an unexpected holiday gift in plunging fuel prices, saving them $10 or more at the pump each time they fill the tank.
“When I look around the (mall), I see busy shoppers carrying bags,” said Maura Ruby, general manager of Danbury Fair Mall. “You see a lot more sales and discounting going on earlier than you have seen in a very long time. Money is tight, people are concerned ”¦ but people are still going to shop for the holidays.”
Still, there are plenty of red flags flying, including Connecticut sales-tax collections dropping a stunning 23 percent in October from a year earlier to $312 million, according to the state Department of Revenue Services.
Same-store sales nationally were down 1.1 percent on average between October and November, according to the Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index, giving analysts ample ammunition for claims that the nation could be in for the worst holiday shopping season in decades.
In October, half of shoppers surveyed said they planned to spend less this holiday season, compared to 31 percent stating that a year ago, according a poll by TNS Retail Forward, which is based in Columbus, Ohio. Whereas consumers have purchased gift cards in increasing quantities this decade, that trend will likely reverse this year according to the National Retail Federation, as shoppers snag sale items and snip off the price tags.
Fairfield County continues to be a tale of two cities on the retail front, with upscale districts like Washington Street in Norwalk contrasted with stretches like North Main Street just around the corner, with seemingly just as many “for lease” signs in windows as those touting holiday sales.
Many of those properties suffer both from being situated in unattractive buildings that have little capacity for expansion, or from lack of parking, according to Jeff Kaplan, vice president of marketing for Stanley M. Seligson Properties Inc., which is developing a 400,000-square-foot retail shopping district north of downtown Norwalk.
“All the feedback that we get, ”¦ retailers say if and when we build another store, we want to be in Fairfield County,” Kaplan said. “Norwalk loses a half-billion dollars each year due to retail ”˜leakage”™ to other towns in the area like Westport, Darien and Stamford.”
For now, retailers are far more worried about how much money they stand to lose in the next month, and are scrambling to find effective incentives to continue drawing vehicle and foot traffic ”“ and to get people spending once they are in the aisles.
