Popular gifts add gleam to dim Christmas - Christmas forecast at discount stores

Discount Store News, Nov 5, 1990 by Richard Halverson

Popular Gifts Add Gleam to Dim Christmas

Although the Christmas retail skies continue to darken, a number of gift stars are starting to twinkle.

Many retailers fear that weak consumer confidence in the economy will dampen Christmas '90 sales. Yet, here and there, Christmas gift hits are beginning to shine through the gloom, a sampling of discounters shows.

"There always is a Christmas," said a merchandising executive from a major toy chain who asked to remain nameless, "although it will be a late one this year."

Expecting a lot of price-cutting, "consumers this year will hold off" on their buying, he predicted.

The whole category of Ninja Turtle merchandise from Playmates is doing extremely well at his chain, along with New Kids on the Block action figures at $19.99.

Other big sellers are: Go Go Pets, Hasbro, about $45; Magic Nursery dolls, Mattel, $30; and Wrestling Buddies, Tonka, $15 to $18.

Barbie dolls are still doing extremely well at that chain, and Super Mario Bros. III remains the best selling Nintendo game.

Bart Simpson, expected to be a hot new Nintendo game this Christmas, is a mixed bag because production delays forced the TV show to begin the season with reruns.

At the new K mart prototype store in Mt. Pocono, Pa., customers were buying four and five Ninja Turtles action figures at a time and putting them on layaway for gifts. Another hot gift layaway is a large plush Ninja Turtle doll at $20.

Other Christmas toy gifts they are putting on layaway are baseball card sets from Tops, Fleer and Score at $20 to $25.

New Kids on the Block action figures "blew off the shelves" of Fisher's Big Wheel, New Castle, Pa., at $12.99 and the chain expects a six-week delay for its reorder to arrive. New Kids storage cubes also sold out at $14.99.

Also indicating a willingness to spend, customers of Montgomery Ward, Denver, are snapping up Huffy Mountain bikes at $200 to $300. Another pricey, but popular, seller is a $60 set of Brass Bells of Christmas, an imported string of lights that also rings bells and plays a Christmas tune.

In giftware, imported copper and stainless steel tea kettles at $10 to $15 were doing well at the Mt. Pocono K mart. At Gibsons' Discount Center, Dodge City, Kan., the best selling giftware item is a blown glass bird from Fenton Art Glass at $16.95.

In housewares, Gibson finds that customers are going for upper end small electrics, such as the Rival sandwich maker at around $30.

At the Mt. Pocono K mart, practical-minded customers were buying vacuum cleaners and putting them on Christmas gift layaway. Popular models are a Singer upright at $70 and top-of-the-line canisters from Eureka and Hoover at $150 to $200.

Housewares standouts according to Boston Distributors, Maple Heights, Ohio, are the stove top steamer from Burton at $30 and Super Seals a microwave fish and poultry cooker from Eagle Affiliates, $25 to $30.

In consumer electronics, The Wiz store in New York City expects a hit in Panasonic's VCR+, an automatic programmer for VCRs at about $59.95. TV Guide will publish codes to go with each TV show. All it takes to program a show is to punch in that code on the VCR+.

Panasonic already has sold out its one million unit production capacity for 1990.

And K mart customers in Mt. Pocono are showing a willingness to pay $15 to $20 for new movie releases on tape, rather than rent them.

Fashion fleece is the one bright spot in women's apparel. At Stuart's, Hopkinton, Mass., college screen pull-overs from Creative Apparel are doing well at $15.99, especially Harvard.

Back at the Mt. Pocono K mart, the only apparel standouts are men's and women's fashion fleece with college insignias. The most popular are Penn State college pull-overs at $14.88.