By Afra Hussain
<[email protected]>

Sophomore Samantha Osleger said she enjoys giving gifts to friends during the holiday season. Osleger said this year instead of giving to all of her friends, they drew names out of a hat because it would cost less to give to just one person.

“We like giving each other gifts but it costs a lot,” Osleger said. She said she will make her holiday gifts this year.

Cost concerns such as Osleger’s, are exactly what worry some local stores. But with the current economic downturn, many stores are feeling the pinch in different ways. To combat the problem and keep customers coming in, some local stores are working harder to lure customers with lower prices. Both Old Navy and Kohl’s representatives said they are implementing changes to help cope with the struggling economy.

“We’re really trying to bring customers in with lower prices,” Michelle Myers, store manager of Clay Terrace’s Old Navy said.

Osleger said, “If the prices are lower, I’ll be more willing to buy more (for the holidays).”

Myers said Old Navy’s strategy to encourage holiday shopping is to offer more bargains.

“I think that shoppers will still shop the same, maybe with a little less money,” Myers said. She also said that the store is marking coats off 50 percent, something they have never done before.

At the Kohl’s stores, similar strategies are being implemented like advertising for holiday deals earlier than the store ever has, Nicole Norris, store manager of Carmel West’s Kohl’s, said. Norris added that the stores will also train associates to better assist customers so that the customers will be inclined to come back to the stores again and shop.

“We also have a system where customers can sign up for e-mail alerts and we’re using that a lot this year,” she said.

Still according to Norris and Myers, much remains to be seen regarding customer shopping habits this holiday season, especially the shopping habits of teenagers.

“We value all our customers, especially our younger customers who shop in the juniors and young men’s department,” Norris said. “Hopefully they will come in and shop so we can meet our goal.”

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RETAIL BY THE NUMBERS

15.5 million: Number of people working in the American retail industry in 2007.
15.3 million: Number of people working in the American retail industry in May 2008.
0.7 percent: Key economists’ median forecast of retail sales decline in September
1.2 percent: Actual percentage of decline in retail sales in September

BUSINESS WEEK / SOURCE