Anemic Holiday Shopping Season Predicted

CHICAGO, IL-Kurt Ivey(top right photo), senior vice president, marketing, at Chicago-based Madison Marquette, says "Late last week I had the opportunity to listen to a conference call on “back-to-school shopping” hosted by Citigroup and Deloitte.

While the back-to-school shopping season is still underway, several stats were very telling in terms of today’s slower economy.

Among them, 71% of those surveyed planned to spend less this year (with 69% planning to spend $100 to $500 for the family).

Apparel appears to be taking the biggest hit with 83% planning to spend less. Not surprisingly, the main reasons for spending less are tied to higher gas, home energy, and food costs.

In terms of shopping, 88% planned to patronize the discount and value-oriented department stores. One of the most significant implications I saw in the study was that almost 70% of those surveyed planned to satisfy all their shopping needs in just 1 to 3 stores, suggesting very focused shopping trips.

This lower shopping activity, combined with the pervasive sentiment that our economy is weak has dramatic implications for retail spending in the second half of 2008. Unless conditions improve, driven to a large degree by noticeably stable lower oil / gas prices, we may be looking toward an anemic holiday shopping season.

CONTACT: Kurt Ivey, Senior Vice President, Marketing, MadisonMarquette, kurt.ivey@madisonmarquette.com