NEW YORK - US SHOPPERS took advantage of drastic price cuts this weekend, but even markdowns of 60 per cent to 70 per cent could not entice those who had already completed their holiday gift buying, according to a survey released on Monday.

'People that went out and shopped spent more money than planned,' said Mr Britt Beemer, founder and chief executive officer of America's Research Group, which conducted the survey, including questions posed by Reuters.

'The consumers who said they were done basically didn't do much shopping this weekend despite the deals,' he added.

US retailers are facing what could be the worst holiday shopping season in nearly four decades as a year-long recession, tighter credit and mounting job losses squeeze household budgets.

Retailers extended store hours and slashed prices last weekend, often at the expense of their own profits, trying to lure procrastinating shoppers and salvage holiday sales.

But winter storms hit much of the United States Friday through Sunday, disrupting holiday shopping during the crucial last weekend of sales before Christmas.

'It basically took what was already a horrid situation for the retailers and compounded it times ten,' said Ms Patricia Edwards, a retail consultant at Storehouse Partners, of the weather that included blizzards and freezing rain.

Mr Beemer said retailers finally gave customers what they wanted, with price cuts as deep as 60 per cent to 70 per cent.

But he still expects holiday sales to drop by 2.8 per cent, which would mark the first decline in sales in almost a quarter century of holiday spending surveys.

The International Council of Shopping Centres expects November and December sales at stores open at least a year to fall as much as 1 per cent, the largest drop since at least 1969, when the trade group began tracking such data.

Shares tracked by the Standard & Poor's Retail Index .RLX fell 4.2 per cent on Monday, sinking further than the wider market. Top retail declines included department store operators Dillard's, which fell 8.2 per cent, and Macy's, which tumbled more than 11 per cent.

Super Saturday push
'Super Saturday', the last Saturday before Christmas, usually ranks just behind 'Black Friday' - the day after the US Thanksgiving holiday - as the single-largest holiday sales day. Black Friday fell on Nov 28 this year.

Since the Black Friday weekend sales rush, retailers have been trying to entice reticent shoppers by rolling out increasingly aggressive price cuts. Online retailers have also been extending shipping offers to subsidise purchases made on their websites.

Online shoppers have spent $24.03 billion (S$34.75 billion) from Nov 1 through Dec 19, down 1 per cent from a year earlier, according to comScore.

In a research note on Monday, Wedbush Morgan Securities said aggressive discounts are driving higher customer traffic, but full-priced merchandise is going largely unsold. That means retailers' profit margins will take a hit.

'After the holiday merchandise is gone, we expect retailers to have an extremely difficult time driving traffic in January and February, which could make for more lackluster results for both retailers and their vendors,' the note said.

Mr Beemer's survey found that 32.9 per cent of shoppers polled this weekend said they spent less than planned, while 32 per cent said they spent more than planned.

That was a reversal from earlier in the season, when 38 per cent said they had been spending less, while 16 per cent said they spent more than planned.

'Consumers, I think, spent a little bit more than they planned,' he said. 'How can you resist 70 per cent off?' But the buying will not be sustained, he said. About 32 per cent of respondents planned to shop sales after Christmas, down from a typical response rate of 58 per cent.

Part of that decline could be tied to a decrease in shoppers who expect to receive gift cards this year, which they typically use in post-holiday spending sprees, Mr Beemer said.

The survey found that 41.6 per cent plan to buy fewer gift cards this year, while only 16.3 per cent plan to buy more.

The survey was conducted on Saturday and Sunday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 per cent. -- REUTERS