For Retailers, Happy Holidays Indeed; Upgraded Forecasts Say Buying Will Give the Area a $5 Billion Lift
The stock market, up. Consumer confidence, up. Job growth, up. The planets seem aligned for a burst of holiday shopping indulgence that should pump more than $5 billion into the Washington area economy in November and December.</br></br>"It's going to be better than we were expecting just a few weeks ago," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Regional Financial Associates in West Chester, Pa., which tracks the region's economic performance.</br></br>Holiday spending on items sold in malls and shops, through catalogues and on the Internet will exceed last year's total by more than 5 percent, predicted Mark P. Vitner, chief economist at First Union Corp. in Charlotte.</br></br>In the Washington region, that translates into roughly $250 million in additional sales over 1997 -- equivalent to a year's revenue for a good-size technology company.</br></br>Earlier this year, the National Retail Federation had predicted a 5 percent to 6 percent increase in spending over last year's holiday season. When the stock market briefly turned turtle this summer, that forecast looked shaky.