Thanksgiving falls late in this year’s calendar, and holiday shoppers are already hitting the stores. Jim Henter’s president of the Iowa Retail Federation, and says October was a pretty good month for Iowa shopkeepers. He says we’ll probably see “some winners and losers” this year, and says small and mid-size retailers are still feeling an effect from the west-coast strike at shipping ports, which may hold up their Christmas merchandise till after the holidays. Henter says last month was very promising for a lot of Iowa retailers. He says a lot of retailers reported pretty good sales in October, but there have been “ups and downs” in the past year with the unsettled economy. Henter says this season is 30 to 40 of the year’s business for a lot of retailers, and says problems in the economy include the number of people laid off by Iowa businesses. He says it’ll depend on what people are looking for — and he’s heard electronics and computers may be hot while clothing might not, but also says there will be a lot of discounting which means good deals for shoppers. While shopping season traditionally begins the day after Thanksgiving, the turkey-day holiday falls late in November, leaving barely three weeks from then till Christmas.
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