A blizzard that struck the Mid-Atlantic and Northern East Coast over the weekend had area retailers fretting that some of the busiest shopping days during the holidays – the two weekend days prior to Christmas – would leave them wanting for sales. While the storm did disrupt sales, shoppers came out in droves on Sunday and on the Web to make the overall retail numbers during the season look good. The so-called "Super Saturday," which typically makes up about $15 billion worth of nationwide retail sales, was not as successful as usual, but other numbers were heartening.
While mall traffic dropped 10% nationwide for Saturday, it saw a massive 65% increase on the preceding day as vigilant shoppers got their last-minute work done prior to the big storm. Others used the Internet to buy items by the dozens even as almost 2 feet of snow fell in some East Coast towns. Said Tina Bashline, of Newtown, Pennsylvania, "You should have seen what I was wearing. My hair was unwashed. I had a big old ugly sweater on, with a credit card in one hand and an address book in the other hand." Bashline described her online shopping experience, and one that undoubtedly played out in thousands of other homes over the weekend.
To spur consumers further, some major online retailers are extending the cutoff for shipping deadlines, meaning those ordering online yesterday – and in some cases today – would still receive orders in time for Friday. Said John Squire, chief strategy officer for web research company Coremetrics, "This teaches consumers that maybe those of us that procrastinate, we still have time to go online very close to Christmas."