Report: Holiday Shopping Sluggish

New York City Figures released late Sunday by SpendingPulse pointed to more signs that shoppers are continuing their frugal ways, despite a decent spending surge on Black Friday, the Associated Press reported. SpendingPulse is a data service provided by MasterCard Advisors that estimates U.S. retail sales across all payment forms including cash and checks.

From Nov. 28, the day after Thanksgiving known as “Black Friday,” through Dec. 6, luxury sales dropped 34.5% compared with the same period last year, while overall apparel sales fell 22.9%. Electronic sales fell 22.3%.

Online sales last week fell 1% to $3.81 billion from the same week last year, according to research company comScore Inc., which called the drop “marginal.”