Last-Minute Buyers Turn Gloom to Gold: Merchants Reap Record Holiday Sales
The ÛÏRecession ChristmasÛ gloomily predicted by worried Washington area merchants has turned into a holiday bonanza.</br></br>Major area department stores, including J.C. Penney Co. and Woodward & Lothrop Inc., have reported record sales during the last five days, caused, in part, by an unusally high number' of pre-Christmas price mark-downs and a break in the wintry weather.</br></br>The hordes of shoppers have brought smiles to the lips of store managers, many of whom had expressed concern about the Scrooge-like pace of sales at the start of the holiday shopping season.</br></br>While large department stores and merchants in suburban shopping malls are reporting brisk sales, however, smaller shops often have not been as lucky.</br></br>While some are doing well, other mom-and-pop operations ÛÓ like Edythe SmithÛªs blouse shop in Silver Spring ÛÓ are having a tough time clearing shelves of overstocked goods.