For Immediate Release
December 1, 2003

LANSING — Michigan retailers’ sales via credit and debit cards grew 10 percent over last year for the first two days after Thanksgiving, according to the Michigan Retailers Association (MRA).

"Parking lots were full, stores were busy and shoppers were buying," said Larry Meyer, MRA chairman and CEO. "It was a fast start to the holiday shopping season."

MRA’s figures are based on same-store credit and debit card sales for the two days after Thanksgiving this year and last year. MRA, the oldest and one of the largest non-bank credit card processors in Michigan, processes more than a half-billion dollars in merchant transactions each year for some 5,000 businesses.

Retailers went into the season projecting a 5 percent increase for the period, according to the Michigan Retail Index, a joint project of MRA and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. That forecast is based on a survey of MRA’s nearly 6,000 members, not on actual transactions.

Friday’s credit and debit card sales were up 4.56 percent over last year. Saturday’s sales were even stronger and led to a two-day gain of 10.05 percent. Increased consumer use of credit and debit cards over cash and checks accounts for a portion of the overall increase, Meyer pointed out.

Bookstores, jewelers, clothiers and toy stores posted the strongest gains, Meyer said. Furniture, home-appliance and sports stores trailed the other categories.

The Michigan Retailers Association is the unified voice of retailing in Michigan and the nation’s largest state trade association of general merchandise retailers. MRA’s nearly 6,000 retail business members operate more than 13,000 stores across the state.

Note: William Strauss, Senior Economist and Economic Advisor with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, can be reached at 312.322.8151