Stores tempt buyers with holiday nostalgia

NEW YORK (AP) — Stores are turning back the clock, conjuring images of hearth and home as they stock their holiday merchandise.

Retailers hope embracing holiday traditions from cozier times will tempt recession-weary consumers to open their wallets in a season expected to show flat sales at best.

That means shoppers will see more gingerbread houses and peppermint-crunch cookies and fewer exotic teas and flavored olive oils; classic ball ornaments instead of offbeat cowboys or cartoon-themed character figures; and an emphasis on simple, festive wear such as shimmery tops instead of elaborately beaded gowns.

Traditional Christmas colors — red, green and gold — also are back.

That’s a big departure from recent years when stores pushed the whimsical and splashy, from the upside-down Christmas tree fad in 2007 to stockings adorned with mermaids and elephants. Stores, wary after the sudden, deep drop in spending late last year, seek to tap into an American psyche that wants comfort and affordability after so many shocks.

A lot is riding on the switch, because holiday sales account for up to 40 percent of annual sales for many merchants. For retailers already hobbled, it could be a do-or-die season.

Industry worries are high because shoppers who were afraid to buy a year ago are now grappling with rising job losses, reduced hours or unavailable credit. The unemployment rate is now 9.7 percent, up from around 7 percent last holiday season.

“When the world feels upside down, you don’t want your tree to be,” said Kit Yarrow, professor of consumer psychology at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. “Nostalgia is a way for people to feel safe.”

Last fall’s spending falloff came too late for the industry to overhaul its products in time for the holidays. Stores typically start planning for Christmas a year in advance. Starting in the depths of the meltdown, stores ditched their 2009 plans in favor of more comforting themes which appear to be striking the right note for an economy that continues to lose jobs and that has only tentative patches of stabilization.

“The ability for consumers to buy is much worse than it was a year ago,” said Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo. “It’s just not fashionable to spend a lot of money for Christmas or for anything. It is fashionable to live within your means.”

Home-shopping network HSN already was starting to create an elaborate peacock-themed Christmas, when the financial meltdown spurred it to scrap the designs in favor of an old-fashioned approach: tartan plaid on everything from throws to ornaments, and stockings adorned with classic icons such as angels and Santas.

“The peacock had stood out like a trend, but it wouldn’t have been the safe tradition,” said Chris Nicola, HSN’s home director. “[This] is comfortable to look at. It’s familiar.”

Stores are still feeling the pain from last year’s holiday season, which economists say was the weakest since at least 1967, when the Commerce Department started collecting retail sales data. And this year could even be worse.

Vitner forecasts total holiday sales could be down as much as 3.5 percent for November and December, on top of a 2.5 percent drop a year ago. The best-case scenario, Vitner believes, is for a 1 percent decline.