COLUMBIA, Nov 29: The stores are open, the prices are marked down, but US shoppers are buying sparingly at the start of the holiday shopping season as a contracting economy crimps budgets.

“Consumers are being very cautious about how much money they are spending,” Stacey Widlitz, a retail analyst with Pali Capital said on Saturday. She visited stores like Best Buy Co Inc and Circuit City Stores Inc on Friday.

“I have very little confidence that the sales number will be up year-over-year,” for total holiday sales, she said.

The three-day holiday shopping weekend after US Thanksgiving Day has taken on added importance this year.The country is seeking its way out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, making the effort to drive Americans into stores a test of consumer sentiment.

Retailers can ring up 10 per cent of their holiday sales in the days after Thanksgiving, and those that fail to lure shoppers face the prospect of slashing prices closer to Christmas, hurting profits.

After opening at pre-dawn hours on Friday, department store operator Kohl’s began its sales at 6am on Saturday, while competitor J.C. Penney Co Inc opened at 8am.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc touted discounts on digital cameras and laptop computers available only in its stores, while Toys “R” Us promised its “lowest prices of the season.”

Widlitz said the Best Buy she visited in New York was mobbed in the early morning hours on Friday, but the rush of customers might not translate into strong sales or profits.

“Traffic, at least in the morning hours seemed to me was up year over year,” she said, adding that customers were buying only the lowest-priced versions of merchandise at the time.

“In the afternoon, certainly we think purchasing dropped off significantly,” she said.

Britt Beemer of America’s Research Group said on Friday that he saw shoppers carrying 25 to 40 per cent fewer bags this year.

“If the item was there, they bought it. If it wasn’t there, they left,” said Beemer, calling this year’s customer a “hit-and-run shopper.”

Alice Hughes, 45, made the rounds in Maryland on Friday, stopping at a Target, Sears, J.C. Penney and Macy’s Inc, buying items like a treadmill and leather coats for herself and her daughter. But she was not impressed with the prices and expected them to fall closer to Christmas.

“I think they’re playing,” she said of retailers. “They tell you they’re marking down, but they’re really not.” “They need more people to be out so they will probably lower prices,” she said.—Reuters