Falling sales push retailers to offer post-holiday bargains

US retailers extended discounts on computers, toys and clothes beyond Christmas to lure consumers who held out for lower prices and had gift cards to redeem.

Starting online from Friday, Best Buy Co trimmed the price of a Dell Studio 17-inch notebook computer to $699.99 from $779.99. Toys ‘R’ Us Inc shoppers, who buy a Nintendo Wii video game, can buy a second game for half price.

Walmart Stores Inc, which started cutting holiday toy prices September 30 onwards, is trying to keep consumers coming back by offering a $50 gift card on purchases of Microsoft Corp’s Xbox 360 players through January 1. Promotions intensified after last weekend’s East Coast snowstorm hurt sales going into Christmas.

“We are going to be very aggressive, we’ve been aggressive all season,” Toys ‘R’ Us Chief Executive Officer Jerry Storch said on December 23 from Wayne, New Jersey, where the largest US toy chain is based.

Best Buy, based in Richfield, Minnesota, fell 6 cents to $40.70 on December 24 in the New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart climbed 28 cents to $53.60.

The Washington-based National Retail Federation was holding to its forecast for a 1 per cent drop in holiday sales, Ellen Davis, a spokeswoman, said on December 20. The International Council of Shopping Centers reiterated on December 22 its forecast for a 2 per cent increase in sales at stores open at least a year in December, after reporting that the storm slowed growth to 0.4 per cent year-on-year in the week ended December 19.