For Immediate Release
December 19, 2003

LANSING — With the biggest shopping weekend of the year still ahead, Michigan retailers’ holiday sales via credit and debit cards are up more than 8 percent over last year, according to the Michigan Retailers Association (MRA).

"Sales have been solid so far and about what the retail industry projected going into the season," said Larry Meyer, MRA chairman and CEO. "A big weekend could turn it into a good season."

MRA’s figures are based on same-store credit and debit card sales for the 20 days after Thanksgiving this year and last year (through Wednesday). Allowing for a 3-4 percent rise in the use of credit and debit cards over cash and checks means actual sales are up by 4-5 percent, Meyer explained.

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 members.

Meyer said this year’s holiday sales appear to be following the trend of recent years: a strong start followed by a slowing and then a strong finish. Credit and debit card sales for the season were up 11.5 percent through the first weekend, 11.2 percent through the first two weekends and 8.5 percent through the third.

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.

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