2004-12-2
I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Almost one-fourth of all personal spending in the United States
takes place during the holiday season. There are gifts to give this
month for Christmas, Hanukkah and the African American celebration
of Kwanzaa. The traditional shopping season began last Friday, after
Thanksgiving Day. Personal spending represents two-thirds of the
economy, so holiday sales are especially important.
Reports on November results have just come out. Major sellers,
especially lower-priced ones, had mostly moderate gains at stores
open at least a year. Wal-Mart was up just seven-tenths of one
percent. Wal-Mart is the biggest seller in the world. The company
had expected growth of two to four percent in November, fueled by
sales on "Black Friday."
The day after Thanksgiving is called that. Storekeepers used to
record profits in black ink and losses in red ink. A day in the
black means a return to profit.
But for this Black Friday, Wal-Mart decided not to cut prices as
aggressively on some goods as other stores did. Wal-Mart says it has
learned from this and will listen more to its customers this holiday
season.
Businesses also listen to the Consumer Confidence Index to get an
idea of how Americans feel about the economy. Many economists
expected an increase in consumer confidence in November. But the
Conference Board, a private group, says the index fell again for a
fourth month.
The National Retail Federation estimated in September that
holiday sales would increase four and one-half percent this year.
Holiday sales increased five percent last year, after poor sales the
year before.
The business group estimated that Americans will spend two
hundred twenty thousand million dollars this season. It says they
spent just over ten percent of that last weekend.
Also, it says more Americans for the first time this season plan
to use a debit card than a credit card for purchases. A debit card,
also called a check card, is linked to the money that a person has
in a bank. In other words, users must have the money before they can
spend it.
About thirty-five percent of shoppers said they would mainly use
debit cards, compared to thirty percent for credit cards. Financial
experts say this change might mean that more people want to keep to
a budget this holiday season.
This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario
Ritter. This is Gwen Outen.