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Britt Beemer America's Research Group articles most recent first Beemer: Survey Confirms Lower Holiday Spending Beemer Predicts Retail Train Wreck Consumers Postponing Major Purchases; Jewelry Hardest Hit Furniture Buying Index Falls in May Consumers Shift Spending To What They Need, Not What They Want Furniture Buying Index Drops Two More Points; Wal Mart Expands Home Furnishings In Midst of Sluggish Furniture Sales Beemer - Many Retailers In Free Fall After Disappointing December August Retail Sales Surge; Home Furnishings, Accessories Lag behind Expert Predicts Back-to-School Spending to Grow Meagerly in 2007 Retail Shopping Takes A Holiday Early Indications Are For A Frugal First Quarter Independent Retailers Outperformed Chain Stores In December Britt Beemer Lowers Forecast of Christmas Retail Sales to 2.7% Rise Over Last Year; Lack of “Must Have” Item to Blame Want To Drive Shoppers Away? Decorate Stores Less and Don’t Say “Merry Christmas” 2006 Q4 Shoppers Study Revealing; Cyber Monday a Hoax, Biggest Retail Push Will Be After December 15th 10 Trends For Retail Christmas 2006 Survey; Parents Cite High Gas Prices As Primary Reason For Limiting Back To School Spending Families Reduce Summer Spending As Gas Prices Rise Or Was It? New Survey Casts Doubt On Rosie Black Friday Survey; Bargain Hunters Drive June Results Top 10 Retail Stores For April; Discounts Drive Traffic Survey Says Americans Extremely Optimist About The Future 37% Of Shoppers Noticed Less Christmas Decorations In Stores; Spent Less As A Result America’s Research Group; Shopping Levels Increasing But Still Expected To Be Lackluster 3.2% Over 2003 Lack Of Hot New Product Weighing Heavily On Holiday Shopping Survey Of Thanksgiving Weekend Shoppers; "We're Not Impressed"; 45% Say Discounts Not Enough Britt Beemer’s Christmas 2004 Sales Forecast; 19% Will Spend More Since Bush Was Reelected Seven Things Your Store’s Appearance Tells Your Customers Britt Beemer Cites Convenience As Key To Drawing Male Shoppers Beemer Lowers Christmas Sales Projection to 4.2% Increase This Year Compared To His Earlier 4.8% Sales Increase survey 31.0% of Americans Who Planned to Shop Thanksgiving Weekend Did Not Get Around To It Study Shows 11% Increase In Consumer Spending For Appliance, Electronics, Computers Britt Beemer Predicts 4.8% Increase In Holiday Spending survey Furniture Leads All Categories For Shopping Levels Over Labor Day Weekend survey Consumers Plan to Spend 10% More on Back to School Furniture Buying Index Up One Point Buying furniture is on consumers’ minds, but not a top priority Shopping Is Not a Big Priority for Many Americans The Incredible Shrinking Customer Base How Loyal is Your Customer? The Loyalty American Consumers Have Towards Brand Products

The shopping season is a repeat of last year.
Britt Beemer, CEO and founder, ARG

Contrary to some forecasts of an improved holiday shopping season in 2009, a new Christmas Retail Survey released today by America's Research Group (ARG) and UBS reveals that sales are weaker this year than in 2008. Of those consumers not shopping, an overwhelming number (95.1%) said they will wait to December 24 to get more items on sale.

"The shopping season is a repeat of last year," says C. Britt Beemer, CEO and founder of ARG. "More shoppers are waiting for better deals and stores just aren't giving them big enough discounts." Beemer says that consumers want 60% to 70% off in order to buy.

Wal-Mart continued to draw shoppers with 72.2% saying that they have shopped there this year compared to 69.1% last year.

Discount retailers in general continued to do well, with 27.6% of consumers saying that they spent the most at Wal-Mart over the weekend, compared to 25.7% last year. Almost ten percent (9.9%) of consumers (compared to 6.5% in 2008) spent most at JCPenney while 5.1% spent the most at K-Mart up from 2.6% last year.

Only 3.82% of parents have finished shopping for their children's gifts.

Shopping levels on Cyber Monday were flat at 28.7% of consumers saying they shopped on-line, compared with 27.1% last year.

As November retail sales figures came in lower than expected last week, Beemer's prediction made early in the season that retail sales will be down 2.9% compared to last year proved on the mark. His predictions have been accurate within a half of 1% over the past 17 of 18 holiday seasons. ARG and UBS will conduct a Christmas Retail Survey every weekend through the holiday sales season.

Conducted December 5 and 6, 2009 at ARG headquarters in Charleston, SC, the ARG/UBS Christmas Retail Survey consisted of telephone interviews with 1,000 consumers. The error factor is plus or minus 3.8%.