HOLIDAY GIFTS Careful shoppers frustrate retailers

Retailers are feeling pressure to meet already modest sales goals.
NEW YORK (AP)-- Consumers, facing only nine more days to shop until Christmas, crowded malls over the weekend, snapping up bargains on clothing and electronics.
Still, jitters about jobs and the economy dampened sales, frustrating merchants who had been counting on a big pickup following lackluster shopping after the Thanksgiving weekend. That means that there will be more pressure on retailers in the final stretch to meet their already modest sales goals for the holiday season.
"This week is going to be a big battle to get consumers to spend," said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America's Research Group, based in Charleston, S.C., noting that sales on Saturday and Sunday, though solid, still fell short of expectations.
Choosy consumers
Indeed, consumers were being choosy with a focus on bargains.
Amanda Loughry, a store manager at Pier 1 Imports in Towson, Md. said that "People are still buying, but are more aware of prices."
She added that small gifts ready wrapped with netting and ribbon marked down slightly to $10 and $5 were selling quickly.
"We pick out what we want, and then look around for the lowest price. As long as it's the quality we want," said Scott Harrington, 46, of Baltimore, who made a special trip at a Hecht's store in Towson, Md. to buy a mattress on sale for $50 -- 50 percent off the regular price.
Nikki Ash, 18, a University of Connecticut student from New York, said she was getting a late start on Christmas shopping.
"I'm not doing as much this year. No money," said Ash, who was at the East Brook Mall in Mansfield, Conn.
In fact, one consumer -- Doreen Carlson, 56 -- regretted going out early to buy gifts.
Missed bargains
"I started out early, and I've decided that's not a good thing," said Carlson, who was at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., at the end of this past week. The woman said one game she bought originally for $45 she found at Target this past week for $18. She decided to return the original.
Merchants are finding themselves in the same spot they were a year ago -- dependent on late buying to revive a sluggish season. Retailers got a last-minute reprieve in 2001, but there is no guarantee that will happen again.
Michael P. Niemira, vice president of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, believes that if the last-minute spending splurge doesn't meet expectations, sales will fall below 2 percent same-store sales gain for the combined November and December months.
Same-stores sales are sales at stores opened at least a year and are considered the best indicator of a retailer's health.
Meanwhile, online sales, which peaked on Thursday at $288 million, didn't show as dramatic a decline as expected. They rose 73 percent Saturday to $263 million from the same time a year ago, according comScore Networks. The figures exclude travel sales, such as airline tickets.