U.S. Retail expected to call sales in the days after Christmas & intensify their disposal after a snowstorm hit the East Coast yesterday

U.S. Retail expected to call sales in the days after Christmas will have to intensify their disposal after a snowstorm hit the East Coast yesterday, disrupting one of the trading days of the year.

Parts of New York and New Jersey have up to two feet of snow in recent days, keeping many shoppers at home. The expenditure may change in January, according to Marshal Cohen, industry analyst at NPD Group Inc. chief, a research firm based in Port Washington, New York.

"It's like a party and nobody comes because the focus has gone shopping after the holidays to travel after the holiday," Cohen said in a telephone interview yesterday. "Look for a repeat sales by retailers. They're going to be more aggressive. They have to throw another party."

The day after Christmas is one of the five busiest shopping days of the year, and it is possible that retailers two weeks to capture lost sales yesterday, said Cohen. At the same time, buyers can lose their enthusiasm as the holiday season declines, he said.

In New York, Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty said the storm was the fifth largest recorded in the history of the city.

Mayor Michael said the city's finances would be affected most by the economic activity lost cleaning costs.

"That hurts"

"Yesterday and today were great days shopping, and that has not happened to their sales tax revenues will be lower, and those are the things that really hurts," said at a news conference at City Hall today .

Some buyers went on to get deals. Ten minutes before the opening at 10 am today, an employee of Bloomingdale's flagship store in Manhattan, about 30 early-bird shoppers in a hallway with heating to keep warm.

"It's Christmas, so that means we're shopping," said Ed Hutlas, 68, an engineer from Dallas visiting the city for the holiday, which was inside the hall with her son and granddaughter. Hutlas said her first purchase would be a new heavy winter coat for her granddaughter.

Bloomingdale's can not be the only benefit. snow shovels, ice melt and snow blowers gas engine "are in high demand" at Lowe's Cos. Inc. from eastern Pennsylvania through Maine, Karen Cobb, a spokeswoman for the U.S. chain . UU. second biggest improvement of his house, said today.

Snow blowers

Home Depot Inc. was additional shipping blowers and other snow-related products to stores in North Carolina to Maine, Ron DeFeo, a spokesman for Atlanta-based company said today.

500 of Standard & Poor's retail index fell 1.35 points to 510.48 at 4:03 pm, New York. The index has gained 24 percent this year compared with an increase of 13 percent for the S & P 500.

Earlier this month, the National Retail Federation raised its forecast for holiday retail sales by 1 percentage point, an increase of 3.3 percent. Today, SpendingPulse MasterCard Advisors, a Purchase, New York, research firm based in expected to release sales figures for the entire holiday season.

Consumer confidence rose in December to the highest level in six months as more Americans, whose purchases account for about 70 percent of the U.S. economy, putting faith in the workplace and improving prospects income.

Little impact

Ultimately, the storm may have little impact on retailers, according to Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail consulting firm based in New Canaan, Connecticut.

"Everyone who wanted to return something yesterday in New York or was before or will do later today or tomorrow," Johnson said in an e-mail. "Whoever wants to redeem gift cards, which do not expire for at least 2 years, can make it later or online."

The storm also is likely to give online sales a "slight bump" yesterday and today, Johnson said.

Meanwhile, retailers and buyers are facing the storm and its immediate aftermath. New York, Saks Inc. had delayed openings today. So did Bloomingdale's, Inc. Cincinnati-based Macy's in the northeast.

At 9:30 am yesterday, just two cars had pulled into the parking lot of a Sears Holdings Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina, even though the retailer had announced early bird discounts of up to 60 percent on clothing and 30 per cent in refrigerators and washing machines.

"The wife was not happy"

"My wife was not happy when I decided to leave," said Michael Scarlett, shopping in Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based chain, after three inches of snow had accumulated overnight. He planned to pick a Tablet PC Android had ordered online and go home.

At 10:30 am, Apple Inc. store in Greensboro with 17 clients and 17 employees in red shirts, four of them in the front window watching the snow yellow bulldozer push a pile in the parking lot. In a Macy's store, the cosmetics had no customers shortly before 11 am

Up the east coast, in Whitehall, Pennsylvania, Camille Qualtere buyer was surprised to find the Lehigh Valley Mall "desolate."

"We thought, 'Is the Mall Closed?'" Said Qualtere, 54, who brought her two daughters to return unwanted gifts and discount clothing store in Macy's before the storm began. "I did not hear about the snow because I was cooking all day yesterday. My daughter just told me about it."

New Year's Resolutions

Consumers can moderate your expenses if after the storm made shopping for several days and frugality of the new year's resolutions into action, said Michael Dart, head of San Francisco private equity in the New York consulting firm Kurt Salmon Associates.

"You are moving in an environment where the consumer is going to be pulled back," Dart said yesterday. "Retailers do not want to lose many of those shopping days. If only today, no big deal. But the longer the time is still wrong, it becomes a problem for retailers."

New York had 18 to 20 inches (46 to 51 centimeters) of snow at 7:30 am local time today as the center of the storm moved north and east, commercial forecaster AccuWeather said. The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for Boston and Maine. In New York, service on several lines of transportation was suspended, pushing some people to the shops - though shopping was not his first priority.

"I'm here to keep warm, so cold, my hands are numb," said Marcia Alleyne, 21 years old, of Queens, a Forever 21 store in New York. "There are no buses running -. I'm just trying to kill time I can"