Florida. 1. High end mall. Few discounts. Nobody buying. Few stores had major discounts but looked to be closing. Nobody carrying bags. Jewelers now beginning to discount - 20% off with no interest one year financing. 2. Outlet mall. Major apparel discounts - 50-75% but merchandise seemed old. Moderate traffic, but many lower income folk. Some stores selling to the fixtures and preparing to go out of business. I don't go shopping in malls often, but can't remember since when it has been so quiet at the christmas season. One observation - people do seem to be going out to dinner quite a bit. Not scientific here, so bias may be introduced. Use your own info.
I went to Borders last Monday in the Fashion Valley area of San Diego. It was noon, the parking lot was full and so was Borders. And I do mean full, I was bumping into other shoppers in the store. I stood in line about five minutes to pay.
I was at a Mall in Natick MA, Macy, Nordstrom etc and the parking lots were compeletely packed last night, I only went in to the American Girl store and there was a long line at the checkout registers. I drive by Best buy fairly often and its parking lot has been fuller than I have seen in a long time since Thanksgiving. Costco is just as busy as ever. Were it not for the drop off in business revenue and cancelation of contracts I would not be able to tell that the econmy was having trouble based on the actions of consumers I have observed.
I was in London 2 weeks ago in the high rent shopping areas it was packed with only a few sale or liquidation signs lots of shoppers and lines-ups. Most people had a bag or bags of purchases.
Apple store in Phoenix, Biltmore. Absolutely JAM packed. We bought a mac book, two week wait for data transfer from old pc to new macbook.
1) Too, too many jewelry stores in the enclosed, suburban, Chicago malls. Too many wide-eyed window-shoppers. Obviously not enough buyers. 2) The Apple stores are (SRO) standing-room-only. 3) The stores that sell portrait art of dogs playing poker and the Three Stooges are void of customers.
Same experience at the Ridgedale mall in MInneapolis. We were there on a Wednesday around supper time, so there weren't that many people around, but when we went into the Apple store, you'd think it was a busy Saturday afternoon.
Local malls here very quite. The other telling factor is how many bags people are carrying. Lucky if they have one rather than the half dozen in previous years. I notice the old traditional clothing gift seems to be popular. Sorry guys expect another business shirt and tie for Xmas