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U.S. retailers moved from the frenzied start of the holiday shopping season to the next phase on Saturday, hoping to avoid a drop after Black Friday and keep the momentum going during a fitful economic recovery.
After featuring the usual deep discounts on Thanksgiving on Thursday and on Friday, retailers were still offering bargains on Saturday as holiday spending is expected to show only about half the growth of last year.
The holiday shopping season that traditionally kicks off on Black Friday - the biggest day of the year for retailers - is closely watched by investors as consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the U.S. economy.
Initial signs were encouraging. ShopperTrak, which measures retail traffic, estimated that sales rose 6.6 percent on Friday compared with a year earlier.
But in 2010 retailers also got off to a strong start to the holidays, only to see a sharp and quick falloff. The National Retail Federation expects holiday retail sales to rise 2.8 percent this year, down from 5.2 percent growth in 2010.
That means an even tougher battle for market share.
"Everybody is fighting for the same consumer," said Laura Gurski, a partner at management consulting firm A.T. Kearney.
Those consumers included Alison Shartrand, a Boston-based accountant who visited clothing retailer Aeropostale's store on Times Square. "I'm only going to shop if there are deals ... the cheaper the better," she said.
Aeropostale Inc , said on its website everything was 50 to 70 percent off in its "Saturday Blowout." At a Gap Inc store in New York's Times Square, everything at the clothing retailer was 60 percent off on Saturday.
"That's the name of the game now - promote, promote, promote," said David Bassuk, managing director of consultancy AlixPartners
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