Sluggish economy still hurting retail sales

January 01, 2010 - High unemployment and cautious consumer spending are expected to dampen retail sales in Las Vegas once the holiday counts are completed at the end of January, retail analysts said.

“Consumers have less money in aggregate than they did a year ago, and they are cautious with their spending,” said Brian Gordon, a principal with research firm Applied Analysis. “We are dealing with a difficult environment with housing prices remaining low (compared) to the peak and fewer people are employed than a year ago. The overall outlook remains challenging.”

Gordon said taxable sales released Dec. 22 for Clark County are a good barometer of what happened during the holiday shopping season. October retail sales were down 19 percent compared with October 2008. From July through October, taxable sales were down 20.7 percent compared with the same fourth months in 2008, Gordon said.

“If those current trends hold, we will see consumer spending down year over year during the holidays,” Gordon said. “Maybe CityCenter will moderate that, but overall we expect the sales value in December to be like the recent trends.”

Nationally, America’s Research Group reported sales in November and December might fall 1.2 percent because banks have reined in lending to consumers. The National Retail Federation projects a 1 percent holiday drop across the country.

“I think Las Vegas is no different from what we are seeing nationally except that we are one of the hardest hit states in the country,” said Pamela Joy Ring, a retail consultant with Ring Retail Advisory. “Whatever is happening in the nation is happening here in a stronger way. Our shopping economy is driven by the middle market. That is one of the sectors of the economy hit the hardest by the Great Recession we are going through.”

An official with General Growth Properties, which owns the Fashion Show mall, Meadows mall, Boulevard mall and The Shoppes at the Palazzo and Grand Canal Shoppes, said at best he expects holiday sales to be flat and at worst fall slightly from 2008.

“We had slow movement in the holiday season” until mid-December when it picked up, said Jim McMichael Sr., marketing manager for Fashion Show mall. “We have had strong traffic ever since.”

McMichael said retailers won’t report any numbers until January, but it appears that apparel was selling best.

“There are going to be some retailers that have a solid holiday seasons, but there are going to be others that are slightly down,” McMichael said. “No one knew what we were going to be this year based on the economy, unemployment and housing situation.