RAPAPORT... This past week experienced strong retail foot traffic and sales in the U.S., according to ShopperTrak; however, the group lowered its Christmas-season sales predictions following a decline in year-on-year comparisons. The good news was that retail foot traffic, for the week that ended on December 15, did increase week-to-week by 15.1 percent and retail sales jumped 16.4 percent. But ShopperTrak reported a 4.4 percent year on year drop in foot traffic for the week and sales slumped by nearly as much, or 4.3 percent.
“As a result, we forecast the week ending December 22 will experience the largest weekly sales volume of the year. And Saturday, December 22 will be one of the five busiest shopping days of the season,” said Bill Martin, the founder of ShopperTrak.
ShopperTrak now forecasts Christmas-season sales for the months of November and December combined to increase by about 2.5 percent year on year, which is down from an earlier forecast of 3.3 percent. ShopperTrak maintains that foot traffic will increase 2.8 percent compared with 2011, which does represent the first increase during the holiday season since the Great Recession in 2008.
A meager increase, I know, but an increase nonetheless. A good omen I hope for 2013 and America. Merry Christmas everyone, hopefully we have a Christmas miracle on our hands here.
Fun Fact: The Christmas Tree cut was developed about 20 years ago by George Saltzman, New York, and is no longer widely cut in the United States. It is derived from triangular made that is polished, with grooves depicting the branches of a pine tree. The Christmas Tree is reportedly still being cut in extremely limited quantities in Israel and Belgium. 
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