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American Morning

Economic Downturn Means Bargains for Consumers During Holiday Shopping

Aired November 23, 2001 - 09:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We'll get more from the war front shortly, but now let's go to the store fronts to talk about hard core shoppers this morning. This is after all the start of the holiday shopping season in an economy that has taken quite a hit since September 11th, this is taking on quite an important tone.

Now we're not going to the Pentagon, instead let's go live to the Pentagon City Mall. The Arlington, Virginia mall opened an hour ago to give shoppers an early start on their holiday purchases. Macy's opened its doors at 7:00 this morning. We've gotten reports about other stores opening as early as 3:00 a.m. Eastern.

Let's check in now with the largest shopping mall in the country -- that is the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.

That's where our Ed Lavandera is on mall patrol at a new store that spell -- sells rather -- only patriotic presents, from what I hear. Ed, what's that?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is it, if it anything red, white and blue, this store has it. The Mall of America is opening -- officially all the stores opening now this hour and a shot from inside the mall here shows that not a huge number of people just yet, but don't hold your breath too long. More than 100,000 people expected to show up at the Mall of the America, in Bloomington, Minnesota today.

This is, of course, the largest mall in the country. Hundreds of stores and everything you'd ever want to buy. In fact, a lot of the stores are duplicated -- a couple of Radio Shacks, for example. That's how big this place is. We're inside of American Pride and the owner here, Ramesh Wahi is getting ready for quite -- quite a busy day aren't you?

RAMESH WAHI, OWNER, AMERICAN PRIDE: Oh yes, we are expecting to be really, really busy and since we opened up this place, we've been busy quite a bit you know. It seems like that everybody is in the mood of buying some patriotic product, you know, and this all came about from the people request, you know, the customer request.

LAVANDERA: Since September 11th you've seen your sales skyrocket quite a bit. Do you think that will continue into the holiday season?

WAHI: I think so because now with out campaign successful in Afghanistan in our terror -- war against terrorism, so people are more in the mood of buying now more patriotic product because they're feeling some relief you know. We're not done with them yet, but we are getting there, you know. So we are seeing tremendous -- lot of the product we can't even keep up with it you know.

LAVANDERA: You're saying that you expect a lot of the items that you have just to be gone by the end of today.

WAHI: We will be because we, when some of the shirts, some of the hats, you know, that we received some shipments, you know, which has already been sold, you know. And now we received -- we are hoping to receive one shipment today and I don't expect it to last until tomorrow, you know.

LAVANDERA: What's selling the quickest?

WAHI): I think the -- our hats you know. The T-shirts, the flags are, of course, on top of the list you know. And a lot of the lapel pins, you know, lot of the jewelry, they're buying quite a bit. But we have from anywhere from mugs to watches to clocks to flags, the hats, the lapel pins. Right now, which is very hot, is the ornaments -- Christmas ornaments, you know.

LAVANDERA: All right, very good.

(CROSSTALK)

LAVANDERA: Ramesh, good luck today. Ramesh is an immigrant from India and he says that it gives him a lot of joy to be able to run this store inside this mall, especially today. Leon, back to you.

HARRIS: Good deal. All right, thanks very much Ed. Ed Lavandera standing by this morning there at the Mall of America.

Well many retailers are sort of concerned that this shopping season is going to be a bit sluggish because of the September 11th attacks and the overall economic slowdown that we've been going through.

Well as the buying begins this morning, let's talk to Tracy Mullin of the National Retail Federation, the world's largest retail trade association. She is in Washington today. Good morning. How are you?

TRACY MULLIN, NATIONAL RETAIL FEDERATION: Good morning, Leon.

HARRIS: Well let's see, are you going to be smiling by the close of shop this afternoon or this evening? What do you think?

MULLIN: We've got our fingers crossed. There's no question that this has been a very challenging season for retailers. But what's challenging for retailers means great bargains for consumers, so we really are encouraging consumers to get out and shop early.

HARRIS: Yes we've seen some of those encouragements. We've seen huge discounts being offered ... MULLIN: Right.

HARRIS: ... for many things. Zero percent financing for the big purchases -- is that -- do you think that's what it's going to take to get folks out and shopping in big numbers?

MULLIN: Well consumers have been trained over the years to wait for bargains, so they're doing that and they've been doing that. But this is a year where the bargains are phenomenal, and the thing that's different this year than past years is that retailers have kept their inventories very slim. So unless you get out and shop early, you may not find the item that you really want to have at the end of the year.

HARRIS: Yes you mentioned the inventories issue, has that helped retailers in the wake of September 11th, the crashes and all and everything? Has that been something that actually helped them get through this particular economic slowdown?

MULLIN: Well of course before September 11th retailers were seeing the downturn and were beginning to plan for that. So they were buying little less merchandise. So yes, keeping inventories low will help them in the long run, but it's -- that really is an encouragement for consumers to get out and shop early.

HARRIS: Now these discounts and everything that we're seeing right now, will retailers have to sustain that throughout the entire shopping season as going through the holidays, all the way through New Year's or is this something where they're hoping to get folks in right now and basically pull back on that so they can make some money?

MULLIN: Well I don't think once you put an item on sale, you can them jack the price up. That would be highly unlikely, but I think you will see retailers continuing to be highly promotional, big sales, big discounts throughout the season.

HARRIS: Any one particular -- what is it that people are buying this year? Can you categorize it?

MULLIN: Well it's really about conductivity, connecting and comfort. We see people reaching out to the people that they care about, trying to give items of lasting value and also items of comfort. A lot less emphasis on trivial gifts -- no more fish ties for dad this year. We think we're going to see mufflers and warm sweaters and stuff like that.

HARRIS: No more of the talking fish on the walls or anything like that.

MULLIN: I think that's gone. That was last year.

HARRIS: What about online shopping? How is that shaping up?

MULLIN: Well the great news is that this year there is something for everybody. There are three channels to shop -- catalog, online and brick and mortar stores and people are taking advantage of all three. So it's a great deal for consumers. HARRIS: Yes. OK. Well listen, we'll be watching to see how things turn out and we sure do wish you luck.

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: We're all in the same boat, believe it or not.

MULLIN: It's a great day to shop.

HARRIS: Listen the people at my house would tell me everyday is a great day to shop.

MULLIN: I love that. Thanks Leon.

HARRIS: All right thanks Tracy Mullin. We appreciate it. We'll talk to you later on.

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