Shoppers may see big discounts soon

Retailers work to revive holiday sales. Consumers appear to be scaling back as fiscal cliff looms.

NEW YORK — If shoppers don’t show up in stores soon, more “70 percent off ” sale signs will.

After a promising start to the holiday shopping season during the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, sales have slowed, according to an analysis of data done for The Associated Press by sales tracker ShopperTrak. Worries about weak U.S. job growth and other concerns are likely to blame for Americans spending less.

That puts pressure on J.C. Penney, Macy’s and other stores, which had been offering fewer discounts this season than they did last year, to step up promotions to lure shoppers.

Major stores don’t discuss sales during the holiday shopping season, but Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke said during a speech in New York City Tuesday that a recent poll of shoppers of the world’s largest retailer found that an overwhelming majority are aware of the threat of higher taxes if Congress and the White House don’t reach a budget deal by January. And some said it would lead them to cut back their holiday buying, he said.

Overall, holiday sales are up 2.2 percent to $659 billion from Nov. 1 through last Saturday, according ShopperTrak, a Chicago-based firm that tracks spending at 40,000 stores across the country. That’s slightly below the 2.7 percent increase over the Thanksgiving weekend when shoppers spent $22 billion.

The modest increase means sales for the rest of the season will be crucial for stores, which make as much as 40 percent of their annual revenue in November and Decem-