A national retail group says sales are expected to increase nearly four percent over last year's holiday shopping. IPR's Bill Wheelhouse reports:
While the expected three-point-seven percent increase is in line with the five year shopping average, there is a difference. A National Retail Federation report saying almost half of those sales will be on line...and 20 percent of shoppers will use their smart phone to make a purchase.
That means solid hiring for the season at companies like Amazon and shipping firms like Fed EX and UPS. While the annual holiday shopping increase doesn't match the rate of the early 2000's, it still marks growth. Nationally, there has been only one year in recent times when holiday retail sales fell... that was back in the 2008 during the recession... when sales fell more than four and half percent. I'm Bill Wheelhouse.