As we head into the traditional holiday shopping period for 2019, a survey of Kentucky retailers finds most have had a year as good or better than 2018 and expect this year’s holiday sales to match or exceed last year.
Officials with the Kentucky Retail Federation surveyed retailers of all types across the state on their perception of the local economy and what they expect during this year’s holiday shopping season. Of retailers responding, 82 percent said their local economy was better or the same as last year and their own financial condition had improved or was the same as last year; and 78 percent said they anticipated holiday sales to be equal or better than last year.
Despite low unemployment rates, officials say the majority of surveyed retailers expect to keep their workforce the same or add a few employees. They also believe consumer confidence is the same or better than last year. And in a continuing trend, retailers expect Small Business Saturday to be their biggest day of the holiday shopping season instead of Black Friday or Super Saturday, the last Saturday before Christmas.
With Thanksgiving falling on the last Thursday of November this year, the traditional holiday shopping season is six days shorter than last year. However, the National Retail Federation reports that 56 percent of shoppers have already started shopping and a fourth of them are already done.
The Kentucky Retail Foundation is the “Voice of Retailing” throughout the Commonwealth, representing retailers of all types and sizes since 1939. Officials report Kentucky’s retail industry supports 556,000 jobs and pays more than $9.3 billion in wages annually. Retailers collect over $2.8 billion in state sales tax and pay millions in other taxes to state and local governments.
