Marketwatch.com
The retail analysts who track sales this time of year say American consumers are hanging back on holiday shopping, waiting, perhaps, until they think merchandisers have slashed price tags as far as they are going to slash them ahead of Christmas. After banging down the store doors the day after Thanksgiving, consumers have played this buying season tepidly.
The retail analysts who track sales this time of year say American consumers are hanging back on holiday shopping, waiting, perhaps, until they think merchandisers have slashed price tags as far as they are going to slash them ahead of Christmas. After banging down the store doors the day after Thanksgiving, consumers have played this buying season tepidly.
Maybe that's not because they are waiting for prices to fall. Maybe they aren't shopping in the stores at all, or shopping for "things" at all. It could just be they are online buying "experiences," anything from a behind-the-scenes tour at a local zoo to a test drive in one of Nascar's speediest vehicles.
These sorts of gifts touch on a growing trend among aging boomers and 20-somethings alike to add more meaning not just to the holidays but to life. Experience gifts can bring culture, spirituality, health and adventure into the seasonal mix. And they come with an added advantage for last-minute givers: They need no box or wrapping.
Then again, maybe the selling season is falling flat for another reason entirely. Maybe, as Paul B. Farrell postulates, people are fed up with the dark spirit of commercialism that has overrun Christmas. Maybe they aren't waiting for sales, but for salvation.
Steve Kerch, assistant managing editor/personal finance
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