Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, December 21, 1993                   TAG: 9312210071
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                LENGTH: Medium

AT HOME, HOLIDAY SALES ARE MERRY

Sales probably will keep pace with last year and should get an added boost from Christmas falling one day later in the week this year, many said.

"It is going to be as good, although the growth rate probably won't be as high," said David Kelly, senior economist at Lehman Bros. Global Economics in Boston.

Retail sales rose 8.01 percent in December 1992 and 7.03 percent in November 1992 on a year-over-year seasonally adjusted basis, the Commerce Department said.

This year, November sales were 7.1 percent higher than last year, and Kelly said he expected December's gain to be much the same.

Many retailing analysts had expected sales to pick up closer to Christmas as consumers continued a pattern of shopping later in the season in hopes of finding items on sale.

Although retailers generally would like to discourage the pattern, which emerged during the 1990 and 1991 seasons as the U.S. economic recession bit deep into sales, "a lot of people are promoting their brains out" in the final days before Christmas, said Dean Ramos, a retailing analyst at Dain Bosworth Inc. in Minneapolis.

Johnson Redbook Service, which publishes a weekly report for retailers, continues to reflect a rosy picture of the holiday shopping season.

Its report, due out today, will show sales growth was "considerably ahead of numbers from last year," said Peter Schaeffer, a partner in Johnson Redbook.

Sales for the first two weeks of December grew 7.2 percent from a year ago on a seasonally adjusted basis and fell 1.6 percent from November, Johnson Redbook said.

"It's a good, solid improvement over last year," Schaeffer said.