Sales Boosts in October Give Merchants Sigh of Relief

A new data from the United States merchants’ organizations showed a slight increase in sales in October, the best record posted by the industry since April 2008.

However, analysts expressed doubts on the economic situation, adding that American consumers are still cautious in their spending habits and that stores have no assurance on whether buyers are willing to pay for full price or not.

With the holiday season just around the corner, merchants are now readying their stocks and pumping up their inventories hoping to make good business. Experts believe that these economic activities only showed that people are spending again but warned that it might also back-fire at the store owners as unemployment and tight credit continue to hound consumers.

In a statement, Carl Steidtmann, an economist at Deloitte Research, said that holiday sales for this year will be the same from last year with shoppers holding back from spending too much.“But we are seeing some good signs of economic activity and recovery is surely on the way,” he said.

Based on the data gathered, stores sales in October have increased by 2.1 percent, a few notches up from 0.6 percent in the previous month. Stores year-over-year sales have also recovered compared to 4.2 drop in the same period in 2008.Steidtmann said that the figures are important to the merchants since sales at the stores are key indicators of the industry health.