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Isle retailers’
coffers jingling
all the way

Hawaii leads the U.S. in
holiday sales for the first
10 days of the season,
a survey says

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By Rob Perez
Star-Bulletin

If the first 10 days of the holiday shopping season are any indication, Hawaii retailers will be in a merry mood once Christmas rolls around.

Continuing a recent trend, Hawaii had the largest year-over-year sales gain in the 10-day period following Thanksgiving, according to a national survey of purchases made by check.

TeleCheck Services Inc., a Houston-based company, yesterday said sales at Hawaii stores open at least a year jumped 4.8 percent over the same 10-day period in 1999.

The gain was the highest among the 27 states surveyed by TeleCheck and easily topped the 3.2 percent national average. The company says purchases by check account for roughly one third of all retail spending.

"This last year Hawaii has just been blowing everybody away," said Laura Ehrlich, a TeleCheck spokeswoman.

Local merchants say holiday sales thus far tend to support what TeleCheck's numbers show, another sign that the state's economy is well beyond the 1990s economic funk that hurt consumer spending and retailer profits.

"It looks like it's going to be a ho, ho, ho season for us," said Carol Pregill, executive director of the Retail Merchants of Hawaii.

Not all retailers, though, are predicting big sales gains.

Mathew Koenig, product director for Tower Records on Oahu, said his sales are up only slightly and he's not sure what to expect through Christmas, particularly since there's more competition in the market. "If I could do the same as I did last year, I'd be happy," Koenig said.

Of the 27 states surveyed for the period from Nov. 24 through Sunday, Illinois reported the second-largest gain at 4.4 percent, according to TeleCheck.

For all of November, Hawaii sales rose 4.4 percent, also tops among the 27 states, the company said.