Much Better Late Than Never, Santa

It appeared to be one of the biggest postholiday buying crushes ever. Shoppers crowded stores across the nation, scooping up bargains and providing some extra year-end cheer to beleaguered retailers.

Well into the December shopping season, it had looked as if the ghost of Christmas 1974 would be haunting merchants for many months to come. During the last full week of shopping before Christmas, nationwide sales were no better than even with the week before. What was worse, in an industry that has become accustomed to smashing year-to-year increases in holiday buying, sales were only 5% ahead of the same period in 1973--a decline in real terms when a 12% inflation rate is counted in.

As the predictions of relative doom and gloom mounted, retailers throughout the land cut prices, optimistically convincing themselves that Santa would yet arrive in the form of a last-minute buying surge that would cause plenty of jingle at the cash registers, after all. As it happened, they were absolutely right. On the days just before the holiday, shoppers invaded the stores in welcome numbers. Total national retail sales during Christmas week were up 3% over the previous week, and 11% over the corresponding week in 1973.

The Montgomery Ward chain reported "surprisingly strong" sales during the last four days before Christmas. In New York City, an executive of Bloomingdale's says, "I never saw the aisles as packed as they were this year," and President George Baylis of Bonwit Teller thankfully notes "the compelling power of Christmas to get people out shopping. The flurry was only a few days long, but it did keep us ahead of last year." Jordan Marsh, Zayre Corp. and Filene's stores in Boston all enjoyed the eleventh-hour boom, as did Rich's in Atlanta, especially in small gift items. In San Francisco, the Livingston Bros, apparel chain actually had its best day ever the Monday before Christmas. And as far as overall holiday sales were concerned, business was up a healthy 8% over 1973.

One of the healthiest sales cities was Pittsburgh, where Christmas week retail business was a solid 33% greater than the year before. The prime reason is that steel-industry demand and employment remains strong, and steelworkers have been protected against the erosion in buying power that afflicted most other wage earners in 1974 by the cost of living escalators they won in their union contracts early last year. Says Lawrence Finley, a local Gimbel's executive: "Psychologically, the attitude here is bullish. Even the Steelers are winning."

Now or Never. Almost everywhere, high-priced luxury goods led the booming sales rebound. While affluent consumers spent almost as freely as ever, an unusual number of budget-set shoppers turned up in the specialty shops, flush with cash and deep in a now-or-never mood. Says an executive at Tiffany's in Atlanta: "People wanted that last fling, and they shopped for those gold chains and that perfect stone --things they could get their money back on, not like a refrigerator or a car, which depreciates." Alfred Montezinos, president of Cartier's in New York City, witnessed some of his genteel clientele literally fighting one another on Christmas Eve for the last miniature 18-karat gold bars the store has been selling as jewelry pendants. The Los Angeles-based Carter Hawley Hale chain sold more goods than ever in 1974, thanks primarily to its top-quality Neiman-Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman department stores. Says Executive Vice President Eaton Ballard: "It happened in the last few days before Christmas, when our stores saw a record-breaking level of last-minute shopping."

January Sales. Overall, however, the retailers' holiday season was far from an outright bonanza. With prices up an average of 12% over last year, the actual volume of goods sold nationwide before Christmas was smaller than in 1973. The stores, as usual, are counting on the traditional January sales to clear their shelves, but some merchants fear that after the discounts of 30% or even more that were offered on many items in December, the postholiday markdowns might prove anticlimactic--and insufficiently appealing to serve as much of a lure.

That would be bad news for an industry that is beginning to feel the effects of the recession in the form of diving profits and mounting inventories of unsold goods. Sears, Roebuck, the nation's biggest retailer, ended a disappointing year by dismissing 8,000 employees--about 1.5% of its nationwide total. In eastern Michigan, where sales have been savaged by auto-industry layoffs, 590 Sears employees were given pink slips the day after Christmas. Some of them, irate picketers were claiming last week, had been axed with less than a month to go before reaching the vesting point of their pensions.

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