Shoppers feast on holiday bargains

Walk along the hotel district in Garapan or drive around Susupe, Gualo Rai or Chalan Kanoa and you are likely to find stores with screaming signs of bargains and sale as business owners cut prices by as much as 70 percent.

Changes in the spending habit of consumers have forced commercial establishments and retail outlets to sell items at really low prices in order to reach sales target during the holidays.

Signature watches, apparel products, toys and home appliances were on sale discounted by between 25 percent to 50 percent at local stores, one of them joined the bandwagon of midnight madness bargains.

A couple of weeks back, Duty Free Shoppers Galleria came up with the annual VIP night when 30 percent discount were given to shoppers invited for the two-night sale.

This is on top of the sale regularly seen at some DFS racks including signature apparel products, leather bags, wallets among others.

With a little more than a week before Christmas day, people are rushing to stores throughout the island for their holiday shopping and are now met with aggressive promotion and marketing efforts, says Development Authority Board Chair John S. Tenorio.

Mr. Tenorio adds that businesses are scrambling over the dwindling number of customers who have evidently practiced frugality notwithstanding the traditional extravagant shopping sprees during the holidays.

Due to economic slowdown and financial uncertainties, more people have become innovative in the gifts they are giving away this year, with the price emerging to be the most significant consideration.

This scenario prompted businesses to slash prices by as much as 70 percent on some items at the risk of hurting profits, just so they can dispose of goods and products from their establishments’ racks and shelves.

At one department store, Johnny Uy was able to buy a good pair of leather shoes at less than $35, the item being originally priced at over a hundred bucks.

While fewer people are rushing to groceries and department stores to shop for the holidays compared to last year, the season remains the busiest period for most of the retail stores throughout the island.

Shift in the spending habits of both foreign and local consumers in the Northern Marianas have translated to a 20 percent fall in the quarterly sales tax collection during the first half of financial year 2000 compared with Fiscal Year 1997.

Records from the finance department disclosed government earnings from gross receipts dropped to an average $14.85 million per quarter during the current fiscal year from the pre-Asian crisis level of $18.65 million.

However, the CNMI economy indicates stronger rally in FY 2000 in comparison with the last financial year as gross receipts collection jumped more than nine percent from $13.58 million.

The government’s quarterly earnings from gross receipts was at its lowest in FY 1999, and was at its highest in FY 1997 when category revenue soared 11 percent from the previous financial year’s $16.8 million to $18.65 million.

In 1998, average gross receipt collection per quarter amounted $15.35 million which dropped 18 percent from the time the economic ills of the Asian currency upheavals were yet to fan towards the Northern Marianas.