Isle holiday
retail sales up
2.4% at midpoint

Check purchases in the state
are exceeding both the national
and western regional average

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By Rick Daysog
rdaysog@starbulletin.com

At the halfway point of the busy holiday season, retail sales by check in Hawaii are up 2.4 percent from last year, according to a new report.

On a percentage basis, the local retail market's gain during the first 17 days of the 2001 holiday season was the largest in the six-state Western region, according to TeleCheck Services Inc., a Houston-based check acceptance company.

TeleCheck said that Hawaii's increase was well ahead of the national average of 2 percent and the western region's average of 1.5 percent.

"Consumer spending has slowed slightly as we enter the third week of holiday shopping, which is characteristic for this point in the season," said Ira Silver, TeleCheck's senior retail adviser.

"Interestingly, we have not seen the mid-season slow down as much as it has historically."

TeleCheck noted that shoppers have been more conservative this year in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

But the company said that some of the consumer pessimism has been offset by low interest rates and falling gasoline prices.

The TeleCheck retail index is based on a same-store comparison of the dollar volume of checks written by consumers at more than 27,000 of TeleCheck's 272,000 subscribers.

Check transactions, which account for about one-third of all retail spending, is the second most popular method of payment, behind cash.