Plight Before Christmas

For many a worried U.S. retailer, it was the plight before Christmas. "Of course we're not ahead of last year's sales now," Bloomingdale Board Chairman J. Edward Davidson summed it up last week. "But with two extra shopping days this Christmas, we still have a chance to top 1959." For the year so far, store sales are barely even with 1959's record totals. The big test is in the sales that are made in the gift-buying stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas--usually 16% of the year's total. For most retailers, Christmas sales make the difference between a record year and an also-ran.

The first reports were almost as variable as the weather.

New York City stores fell 1% behind last year in the first full week in December, although New York's Lord &; Taylor scored the best single sale day in its history. But last week New York was hit by heavy snows that kept shoppers at home--except for those hunting overshoes, gloves and overcoats. Boston also was blizzarded. To catch up, downtown Boston stores stayed open Saturday night for the first time in history.

In the South the weather had a different effect. After a November increase of 8%, Miami Christmas sales lagged until chilly weather last week stirred shoppers into a buying mood. Atlanta retailers gloomily expect Christmas sales to be off some 15%. The lunch-counter boycotts are keeping Negroes away; fear of disturbances is restraining white shoppers.

Chicago department stores were among the best off: 1960's total sales trail 1959 by only 1%, and, spared last week's snows, Chicago expects holiday buying to put merchants over the top for the year. Chicago's big Discounter Sol Polk expects Polk Brothers sales to be up 5% for the season and year, is doing a boom business in aluminum Christmas trees and--despite the lack of heavy snow--home snowplows. More than 1,000 plows priced from $129 to $169 have already been sold v. only 100 at this time last year. Polk thinks the home snowplow is beginning to compete with the foreign car as "the new mark of distinction in the suburb." Montgomery Ward has a solid cake ready for holiday frosting. Last week it reported sales for its first fiscal ten months up 4.6%.

Though department stores were worried about Christmas sales, total retail sales held virtually steady for November at a seasonally adjusted $18.6 billion--down only $100 million from October, which rang up the second highest monthly rate in history. Durable-goods sales declined 2% from October, but the losses were partially offset by gains of food stores, restaurants and clothiers. Moreover, the Commerce Department cheerily predicted a sharp rise for December (see chart).

The base for the healthy retail sales record was easy to see: the Commerce Department reported that personal income in November held steady at the annual rate of $409,500,000,000--a record high.

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