The Christmas Consumer as Scrooge

IN Knoxville,Tenn.,free buses with red-suited drivers carry shoppers from free parking lots to downtown department stores, five blocks away. In Cincinnati, retailers offer "breakfast with Santa" and let kiddies choose between a black St. Nick and a white one. To seduce the shoppers, stores across the U.S. are resorting to unprecedented gimmicks and highly unusual pre-Christmas sales on everything from housewares to Teddy bears.

For all this attention, the consumer has turned into something of a Scrooge. Even The Salvation Army is having trouble prying dimes out of him. In department stores, cash-register tapes for the Christmas season are running scarcely above last year's cheerless levels. The National Retail Merchants Association in November had predicted a rise of 6%. Then its officials took one look at the early returns and revised their forecast to a 3% or 4% gain. Considering inflation, that would amount to as much as a 3% drop in the volume of goods actually sold.

Practical Gifts. Even more ominous than total sales are the signs that a new parsimony in gift giving has infected the public. "The average sale is going to be down this year," says Robert Daly, Chicago district manager of Montgomery Ward. "Christmas business is spotty," adds Ralph Lazarus, chairman of Federated Department Stores. "Shoppers are buying pure necessities but not luxury items." complains Richard Lusk, head of the Denver Retail Merchants Association.

Almost to a man, store managers report a decline in sales of expensive items like jewelry and furs and a shift to cheaper and more practical gifts like electric hair combs and digital clocks. In Manhattan, Lord & Taylor advertised a selection of gifts--nothing over $8. Georg Jensen's found that normally fast-moving $1,500 jewelry was being passed up in favor of the $25-to-$125 variety. "The best-known store in Texas has dropped from its popular Christmas catalogue the traditional tips on "How to spend a million dollars at Neiman-Marcus."

What has soured the eggnog of human kindness? "Uncertainty," says John Coulter, an official of Chicago's Association of Commerce and Industry. "Not only about jobs, but also about prices. Unfortunately, one of the easiest times to save money is around Christmas."

Sitting Out the Battle. Though it is over, the General Motors strike still hurts. Detroit stores have been quiet so far, and one last week began "the biggest clothing clearance in our history." The confusion in women's fashions is partly to blame. While midis are beginning to catch on in some cities, most women are simply sitting out the battle of the hemlines. At week's end Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans reported to President Nixon that Christmas sales were "fairly brisk" and that apparel was moving well. The Secretary took pains to note an upsurge in the sale of women's pantsuits.

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