After Christmas Sales

Click Here For Your Free $250 Grocery Gift Card

If you were shocked by the After Christmas sales at popular shopping spots like Saks and Bergdorf Goodman? Join the shopping club. This season, looks like everything will be discounted.

But some retailers have been waiting until after the holidays to offer sales. These stores’ owners feel thaitat their products are unique enough that there’s adequate demand for them before the holidays–and that loyal customers will scramble for the leftovers once the discounts do kick in, after the first of the year.

Among offers:

•Sears will offer up to 75% off on electronics and 50% off on Craftsman tool storage chests. Kmart will add 40% off to clearance items, already marked down 30%.

•Toys R Us circulars will bill the day after Christmas as the “biggest” after-holiday sale with deals including an $81.99 race car set for $19.99 and table games, originally $239.99, for $131.99.

•Crate & Barrel will have savings of up to 70%.

•J.C. Penney stores open at 5:30 a.m. with twice as many door-buster deals as last year. Among the 100 deals: 70% off jewelry.

Click Here For Free $250 Grocery Gift Card

J.C. Penney announced today that it will open at 5:30 a.m. on the day after Christmas and offer 100 doorbuster specials, which is says is twice as many as last year.

I know, I know. You’re still trying to wrap up your Christmas shopping and haven’t even begun to contemplate after christmas sales.

But retailers are. And here’s why.

They want us to spend the gift cards we receive as holiday presents as soon as possible because the cards don’t count as sales until they are redeemed for merchandise.

Click Here For Free $250 Grocery Gift Card

This year, though, things may be tough. Almost everything has already been on sale for more than 50% off. To lure me out on Dec. 26 for leftovers, stores would have to be giving stuff away.

Many of us are also opting to buy each other deeply discounted sweaters and jackets and toys instead of gift cards that never go on sale. According to the National Retail Federation, a Washington, D.C., retail trade organization, gift card sales are expected to fall about 6% this year and gift card buyers are expected to spend less on them $147.33 compared to $156.24 in 2007.

J.C. Penney is calling Dec. 26 the new Black Friday — the name given for the day after Thanksgiving shopping discount frenzy that is the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. Just like it did on Black Friday, it’s offering shoppers a free wake-up call so they don’t miss the Dec. 26 sale. If you want one, sign up at www.jcp.com starting Dec. 23.

Among the earlybird sales which go from 5:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.: 50-60% off lots of private label clothing for men and women and 75% off Christmas trim and decor.

source: http://www.freep.com/article/20081219/FEATURES13/81219095

The outlook isn’t joyous for the holiday shopping season and after christmas sales, but local and national retailers hope special promotions and bargains will prod consumers to spend more freely.

As the economic downturn deepens, 37 percent of consumers nationwide say they plan to scale back on their gifts and other holiday-related spending, according to a recent International Council of Shopping Centers/Goldman Sachs survey. That’s the highest percentage since ICSC began asking the question in 2004 and is up from 27 percent last year.