Storm forces many stores to close, shoppers to stay home

The snowstorm that blasted the Washington area Saturday also put holiday shopping in the deep freeze. Across the region, shopping centers began closing at midmorning and, by late afternoon, almost every major mall in the region had closed.

At the Market Common in Clarendon, retailers struggled to keep up with the accumulating drifts. Whole Foods opened two hours late, at 10 a.m., to give workers more time to clear the parking lot. At the Apple store, a half-dozen employees, huddled and chatting, greeted a reporter -- the first person to walk through the doors since opening -- with applause. At Barnes and Noble, a gift-wrapping station sat unmanned. Few shoppers materialized, and stacks of neatly arranged books sat undisturbed on the shelves.

Retailers say they hope to make up for the lost day of sales Sunday. But the record-setting storm and its timing were a depressing blow for businesses struggling to survive a tough economy.

A snowstorm on the Saturday before Christmas is one of the worst things that can happen in a recession, said Marshal Cohen, senior analyst for NPD Group, a consumer research firm. "It is the busiest day of the year now gone awry."

In a season when malls extend their hours into the morning and late evening, it's unusual for them to close their doors at all. The storm was the first time in at least a decade that Washington has seen snow on the Saturday before Christmas, according to weather research firm Planalytics.

Carrie O'Brien, out for an after-breakfast walk, was one of the few people on the sidewalks in Clarendon's shopping district. The 32-year-old Securities and Exchange Commission employee said she was crossing her fingers for a day off Monday. "This is a lot of snow for anywhere," said the Vermont native.

A few advantages

The empty halls at White Flint Mall in Rockville were a boon for resident Kevin Peters, 37, who finished nearly all of his Christmas shopping in 45 minutes.

"If you're going to get all your shopping done in one day, then today's your best bet," said Peters, who owns a four-wheel-drive Chevrolet Tahoe for "stuff just like this that happens once every 10 years or so."

Retail experts said they expected much of Super Saturday's sales to shift to Friday or Sunday. In addition, Christmas's arrival late in the week gives procrastinating shoppers some wiggle room.

The National Retail Federation, a trade group, forecast that holiday sales will be down 1 percent compared with last year, well below the 10-year average growth rate of 3.4 percent. But many consumers have yet to complete their Christmas shopping. According to a recent poll by Consumer Reports, only about 12 percent have crossed off all the names on their lists and about one-third don't expect to finish until Wednesday. Forty percent said they have not begun to shop.

Paul Bosco and his wife spent more than an hour walking around their U Street neighborhood, trying to send two big boxes of Christmas presents, one bound for Florida, the other for Italy. They traipsed through ever-deeper snow to the post office but discovered that it had closed 1 1/2 hours early. Then, they tried Kinko's -- closed. Finally, they made their way to Whole Foods in hopes of buying stamps for their holiday letters -- also closed. At a coffee shop at U and 13th streets NW, Bosco put down the boxes and laughed. "We're giving up and getting hot chocolate and going home," he said.

Five minutes later, the coffee shop locked the door and hung a "closed" sign in the window.