Christmas sales boost U.S. retailers: survey

NEW YORK, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. shoppers made retailers merry with record holiday sales in the week before Christmas and the day after Christmas, according to a survey released on Friday.

The Retail Council of New York State found after a survey of stores that 80 percent said their week-before-Christmas sales were better than or the same as the same period in 2010. The two days' shopping after Christmas also boosted retailers, with 65 percent of survey respondents saying their sales were better than or the same as last year's post-holiday period.

Nationwide, consumers spent approximately 44 billion U.S. dollars in GAFO (general merchandise, apparel, furniture, electronics and accessories, etc.) retail sales for the week ending Dec. 24 -- a 14.8 percent gain year-over-year, according to ShopperTrak, which provides traffic counting services from more than 25,000 U.S. locations.

"With good weather in most of the country and the season coming to a close, procrastinators and bargain hunters hit the stores and gave retailers the sales lift they needed to outpace last year," said ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin.