Eager to expand the holiday shopping season without provoking consumers, retailers are experimenting with a novel approach: earlier-than-ever advertising that deliberately plays down the tinsel and holly.Shattering records for an early start, Wal-Mart is cutting prices on toys in mid-October, but the company is not calling it a holiday sale. L. L. Bean has started advertising free shipping — but it is shying away from the H word. And Toys “R” Us is marketing a temporary store in Manhattan, but consumers have to study ads to find the name: Holiday Express.
The furtive marketing campaigns are intended to jump-start what stores expect to be a listless buying season, one dragged down by economic jitters and large-scale toy recalls.
The National Retail Federation predicts that sales will rise 4 percent this holiday, to $474.5 billion — the slowest growth rate in five years. Rosalind Wells, chief economist for the federation, a trade group, warned that “retailers are in for a somewhat challenging holiday season.”
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