From today's USA TODAY:

".....Retailers who failed to discount — such as Macy's, Circuit City and Borders — were the season's worst performers, the survey found.

"Penney's was super-aggressive. They were advertising 40% to 50%, 60% off all season and Macy's didn't do it," Britt said....."

Actually, I don't think analysts know much of anything, nor do the stores really know how it's going to come out. It's all fun with numbers. They could've had huge sales number, but given away the store.

At what cost profit?

Bah, a pox on all their houses.

What I sold this Christmas, I sold because someone wanted it enough and valued it enough to pay retail. And it's looking like enough customers like a downtown full of individual shops and a shop full of individual items for us to have had a good Christmas.

The rest can go to Walmart for all I care....I'll never win them over. Anyone who will walk away from a new book, that they want, for 10.00, and fight the Christmas traffic to save a couple of bucks, is beyond my ken.

"...Barnes & Noble's discount program — which offers members who pay a $25 fee as much as 40% off on hardcover best-selling books — managed to entice enough shoppers to effectively drive "a dagger through the heart" of rival bookseller Borders, Beemer said.

Borders counters with Borders Bucks, which gives members a $5 coupon every time they spend $150.

Shoppers "went out and bought every deal they could," Beemer said. "When there were no deals, there weren't many buyers...."

And then later in the same article, this:

"...Still, overall holiday sales gains could come at a cost for retailers, says Sherif Mityas, partner and central region leader at consultancy A.T. Kearney, noting that stores discounted heavily at the expense of margins. He believes that apparel merchants will see their fourth-quarter profits most hurt..."