Back in 2010, even with all the recession-fueled belt-tightening, retailers were delighted to find that holiday sales had jumped 5.5% between early November and Christmas Eve.
That was the best news retailers could have gotten after widespread economic pain drove down end-of-year sales in the previous two holiday seasons. Sales during the 2011 holidays saw another bump, of 4.1%. And this year analysts are expecting yet another increase, to a record $568.1 billion.
