Skip navigation

HOLIDAY RINGS BRING GOOD CHEER TO STORES

Supermarket retailers were pleased with sales chalked up during the just-concluded holiday period, despite the shorter shopping period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, last week's SN polling of several operators showed.Some said special holiday items were particularly strong sellers this season -- items such as custom-made fruit baskets and baked goods with seasonal themes.Others noted a slight

Supermarket retailers were pleased with sales chalked up during the just-concluded holiday period, despite the shorter shopping period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, last week's SN polling of several operators showed.

Some said special holiday items were particularly strong sellers this season -- items such as custom-made fruit baskets and baked goods with seasonal themes.

Others noted a slight decline in home-meal replacement sales, apparently because many consumers preferred to make their own holiday meals. In conjunction with that, baking items and accessories showed strong sales levels.

Many operators said holiday sales tended to be late in coming this year, both because of the compressed shopping period and because snowstorms in many places kept consumers inside until the last moment. (For more on the storms in the Northwest, see Page 6.)

Sales were weighed toward the end of the holiday period at Ralphs Grocery Co., Compton, Calif., said Greg Mays, executive vice president and chief financial officer.

He told SN that a week-by-week analysis of the recently concluded holidays showed that sales tended to build slowly.

"We were pleased with sales this year," he said, although the first week did not prove so successful.

Ralphs found that in the beginning of the period, sales were softer than a year ago. But in the days right before Christmas, shopping picked up to levels above the previous year's, lifting results for the entire period.

The theme that sales were strong echoed in the industry.

Nelson Rodenmayer, marketing director at Winn-Dixie Stores' Midwest division, Louisville, Ky., said that "we had a very strong holiday."

Consumer confidence was up, so shoppers spent more on higher quality items.

Maureen Murphy, spokeswoman for Price Chopper Supermarkets, Schenectady, N.Y., said that "because of the calendar, it was difficult to measure [sales], but we feel our sales were better than the trend."

At Scolari's Jan Gilbert, vice president of sales and merchandising, said "you had a two-day difference this year vs. last year, so we had to compare the two weeks preceding the holiday. We noticed moderate increases."

Hughes Family Markets' Mike Shultz, senior vice president, also noted strong gains, "in spite of the shortened time span between Thanksgiving and Christmas and the fact that Christmas fell on a Monday last year, which made the weekend prior [to the holiday] a lot more feasible to hold parties." The chain is based in Irwindale, Calif.

"Most of the sales were in the last few days prior to Christmas due primarily to the shortened time span," he said.

Scolari's Gilbert also said consumers began shopping later as a result of a snowstorm that hit his market just before Christmas. Usually he sees the bulk of baking item purchases earlier in the shopping period, but this year Scolari's experienced heavier sales later.

"This year we saw it happening Sunday, Monday and Tuesday," Gilbert added.

Other retailers said holiday shoppers made their purchases starting the Friday before Christmas.

But in the Northwest, where snowstorms were whitening the streets of Seattle, consumers didn't get out until Monday and Tuesday, said Jim Aalberg, treasurer at Fred Meyer Inc., Portland, Ore.

The freezing weather caused some customers' refrigerators and freezers to malfunction, so sales of ice increased, Aalberg noted.

Other storm-related products that picked up during the holidays included batteries, lanterns, lantern oil, flashlights and warm clothing.

The Southeast also was hit with some unseasonably cold weather and snow.

But Ruth Kinzey, spokeswoman for Charlotte, N.C.-based Harris Teeter, said that chain's stores were prepared: "We do watch the weather and respond accordingly."

Usually, when snowfall is predicted, shoppers run to the stores for milk, bread and pet food, Kinzey said. "We did have that in a few of our markets, but we were prepared and the usual high volume items followed the usual trend."

There were other products that sold beyond Harris Teeter's expectations, Kinzey added, namely store brands of holiday ice cream, egg nog and canned vegetables showed strong sales, in addition to sour cream, juices, frozen pies and baking supplies.

The chain provided heavy promotional support for baking supplies, which probably contributed to successful sales results. Wine and specialty crackers performed well due to effective promotion through displays and cross merchandising, Kinzey said.

Store-made items at Price Chopper sold well for its stores, said Murphy. Custom-made fruit baskets, gingerbread houses and decorative cookies moved well, as did baking items and accessories. High-end general merchandise such as wreaths and porcelain dolls proved to be slow movers, she added.

Some operators benefited from increased promotional activity during the just-concluded period.

Departments at Scolari's that benefited from promotion included the floral department where holiday arrangements were sold. A gift guide featuring those arrangements as well as small appliances and general merchandise items was distributed, Gilbert said.