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This site contains resources and articles for you to use when you are looking
for information about Christmas. This site has articles,
links
to Christmas, information and news. In the future we will
have products that will help you get more
out of your holidays with Christmas, so you can do what
you were supposed to do....
Enjoy the Holidays!.
US Census - Holiday Shopping ó The December Rush
The holiday season, with all its traditions, family gatherings and general rejoicing, is now upon us. To commemorate this time of cheer, the U.S. Census Bureau presents a host of holiday-related facts and figures from its data warehouse.
By: U. S. Govt.
The holiday season is critical for retailers. How critical? Well,
here are some examples using the most recent Census Bureau data. Note
that the estimates that follow have not been adjusted to account for seasonal
variations or price changes.
$32.4 billion
Retail sales by the nationís department stores in December 2002.
This represented a 47 percent jump from the previous month (when retail
sales, many Christmas-related, registered $21.9 billion). No other month-to-month
increase in department store sales last year came near that.
Other U.S. retailers with sizable jumps in sales between November and
December 2002 included clothing stores (44 percent); jewelry stores (163
percent); book stores (87 percent); sporting goods stores (59 percent);
and radio, TV and other electronics stores (56 percent). <http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/mrts.html>
$13.5 billion
Value of electronic shopping and mail-order sales in December 2002, easily
the highest month that year. <http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/mrts.html>
$13.8 billion
Value of e-commerce sales for the fourth quarter of 2002. This amount,
which represented 1.6 percent of total retail sales over the period, was
greater than e-commerce sales for any other quarter of the year. <http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/mrts.html>
14 percent
Proportion of total 2002 sales for department stores (including leased
departments) that took place in December. For jewelry stores, the percentage
was 23 percent. <http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/mrts.html>
22 percent
Proportion the nationís department stores built up their inventories
between the end of August and the end of November 2002. Thanks to the
holiday hordes, inventories plummeted by
23 percent in the yearís final month. <http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/mrts.html>
1.9 million
Number of people employed at department stores....[MORE]
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