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I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English
Economics Report.
Almost one-fourth of all personal spending in the United States takes
place during the holiday season. There are gifts to give this month for
Christmas, Hanukkah and the
African American celebration of Kwanzaa.
The traditional shopping season began last Friday, after Thanksgiving Day.
Personal spending represents two-thirds of the economy, so holiday sales
are especially important.
Reports on November results have just come out. Major sellers,
especially lower-priced ones, had mostly moderate gains at stores open at
least a year. Wal-Mart was up just seven-tenths of one percent. Wal-Mart
is the biggest seller in the world. The company had expected growth of two
to four percent in November, fueled by sales on "Black Friday."
The day after Thanksgiving is called that. Storekeepers used to record
profits in black ink and losses in red ink. A day in the black means a
return to profit.
But for this Black Friday, Wal-Mart decided not to cut prices as
aggressively on some goods as other stores did. Wal-Mart says it has
learned from this and will listen more to its customers this holiday
season.
Businesses also listen to the Consumer Confidence Index to get an idea
of how Americans feel about the economy. Many economists expected an
increase in consumer confidence in November. But the Conference Board, a
private group, says the index fell again for a fourth month.
The National Retail Federation estimated in September that holiday
sales would increase four and one-half percent this year. Holiday sales
increased five percent last year, after poor sales the year before.
The business group estimated that Americans will spend 220,000 million
dollars this season. It says they spent just over 10 percent of that last
weekend.
Also, it says more Americans for the first time this season plan to use
a debit card than a credit card for purchases. A debit card, also called a
check card, is linked to the money that a person has in a bank. In other
words, users must have the money before they can spend it.
About 35 percent of shoppers said they would mainly use debit cards,
compared to 30 percent for credit cards. Financial experts say this change
might mean that more people want to keep to a budget this holiday season.
This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter.
This is Gwen Outen. | 
