Home-Stretch Buying Lifts Merchants’ Spirits

The last-minute holiday surge is heralding the return of the American consumer, who is shedding the recession’s thrifty ways and rediscovering the pleasure of shopping.
The malls are jammed, parking lots snarled and sales expected to stay strong in the few remaining days before Christmas.
With new figures showing in-store sales up 5.5 percent on the final weekend before Christmas compared with last year, this holiday season is on track to be the healthiest since 2006.
Separately, online shopping has been fueling growth in total sales, while spending in stores on this Thursday alone may rival the levels reached the Friday after Thanksgiving.
And Christmas Eve still beckons the procrastinators. Of those with the majority of their shopping left to do, about 10 percent plan to be in stores on Friday, one survey suggests.

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