About The World

  As the holiday shopping season ramps up, retail stores are busy putting the finishing touches on efforts to draw customers in, despite the battered U.S. economy, reports CBS News correspondent Seth Doane.

"This is it, we're at the end," said Barbara Cook, head of stores for Gap, Inc. "What you're seeing is the finish line of the whole kind of retail chain here."

While Gap sales are down 8 percent from a year ago, net income actually rose, because the company slashed inventory and closed unprofitable locations, said Cook.

"You know, it's a bit like planning for a very well-choreographed play," she said of the holiday preparations.

But they cannot choreograph the customers.

Eighty-nine percent of shoppers plan to spend the same, or less, than they did last year. Only 11 percent plan to spend more.

"This year Black Friday takes on a different dynamic," said retail analyst Marshall Cohen. "The consumer has already seen the retailer blink months ago and that means the consumer has the ability to wait as long as they want. You're going to be able to get anything, anywhere at almost any price."

So on the eve of Black Friday, some sales teams are getting pep talks, with managers reminding staff of two-for-one sweater deals.

In past years, sale items were positioned near the front to draw customers in. Now they're everywhere.

"I think the customers are definitely looking for value," said Cook.

While clothing and toys top the holiday shopping list, electronics and video games are not too far behind. And despite dismal predictions, Best Buy's Michael Vitelli thinks Black Friday could surprise everyone.

"There's a part of me, the hopeful part, that says this Black Friday is going to be bigger than any one in recent memory because there are so many people looking for deals that are only available on that day," he said.

That may be what retailers are hoping, but another statistic may give them pause - just about 11 percent of shoppers haven't paid off their holiday shopping debt from last year.

Analysts say shoppers may stick to smaller gifts like cosmetics rather than $1,000 flat-panel TVs in a holiday season expected to be the weakest in decades.

Another concern? There aren't any must-have items so far, even in toys - though some items have been popular, such as Spin Master Ltd.'s Bakugan.

"I will be careful," said Joanna Rizzo, 20, an executive secretary from Medford, N.Y. who plans to stick to her budget of $200 for the day after Thanksgiving. Rizzo has just finished paying off her credit cards, and will use cash to pay for her presents. Overall, she plans to spend about $600, less than the $1,000 she spent on presents last year.

In recent years, merchants including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Toys "R" Us Inc., have been pushing earlier the sales and expanded hours that were typically reserved for Black Friday - named because it historically was when stores turned a profit - to jump-start the season.

But in this year's deteriorating economy, stores from luxury retailers to consumer electronics chains, pressed the panic button - slashing prices up to 60 percent on even new merchandise. After reporting the worst October sales in at least 39 years, stores are seeing more weak sales in November, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs Index, which measures sales at stores opened at least a year.

Kmart, a division of Sears Holdings Corp., started offering products at what it calls "Black Friday prices" earlier in the month - the first time it had done so. Drugstore chain CVS Caremark Corp. will launch a weeklong "Black Friday" promotion on Sunday, offering early morning deals on items ranging from GPS devices to digital photos frames.

"Black Friday is going to have some very impressive deals, but overall the deals won't be any better than what you saw before," despite all the hype, said Dan de Grandpre, founder and editor-in-chief of dealnews.com. "Retailers have already given their best shots already."