Retail Woes: Post-Christmas Bargains Plentiful
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to keep talking shopping and see what's yet another disappointing year in sales, what it means for retailers, the healthy economy in general. Joining us now, Dana Telsey, a retailer analyst for Bear Stearns. A happy holiday to you. Thanks for joining us.</s>DANA TELSEY, RETAIL ANALYST, BEAR STEARNS: To you, too. Good morning.</s>KAGAN: And not so happy from what we're seeing for retailers. Really bad, and not just this year, but the third straight year in a row.</s>TELSEY: Yes, this was a disappointing Christmas. Don't forget that Christmas doesn't end until December 31 in retails term, and overall, it didn't start off as bright. There was no must-have item. There were six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And also a concerned economy causes consumers concern.</s>KAGAN: But in the past, that shortened Christmas season -- because if you look at the calendar and go back -- that hasn't been a problem in better economic environments for retailers.</s>TELSEY: Yes, we have had shorter Christmas seasons, both in 1991 and 1996 when the holiday season sales rose around 2.7 percent and 2.9 percent. If we squeak by with even a positive gain, that would be a victory this year.</s>KAGAN: Let's talk about this from a shopper's perspective. If you were in the stores before Christmas, and who wasn't, you saw so many discounts and sales then, and you do this, and then you go to the cash register and they'd give you another coupon. Some places, they practically were giving you money to walk out of the store with their items. If it was like that before Christmas, what's it going to look like after Christmas?</s>TELSEY: There's even better bargains. Today, we're hearing of some stores having you take 50 percent off marked down merchandise, and so those early bird and late bird specials, take an additional 15 percent off.</s>KAGAN: So, it's good stuff.</s>TELSEY: Yes.</s>KAGAN: How do you know where to look for the best bargains?</s>TELSEY: Go to the department stores, go to consumer electronic stores. They're going to be all over.</s>KAGAN: And then finally, January 9 for economic people like you, you're looking for that retail sales number. That's when we'll really know what the number is on Christmas?</s>TELSEY: Right, that's when all of the individual stores will report their sales. You do have some of the bigger chains giving out numbers every Monday, and they haven't looked good.</s>KAGAN: It hasn't looked good. But as I said, on the other side for shoppers...</s>TELSEY: For shoppers, there's a bargain.</s>KAGAN: There's a bargain out there. Go shopping. All right, Dana, thank you so much.</s>TELSEY: Thank you. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.