Holiday sales nationwide were the highest they’ve been in six years, up 5.1% over last year. Meaghan Holland of the Michigan Retailers Association was asked if she’s surprised sales were that strong.
“It is a surprise, as we were expecting a little over a 4% increase,” says Holland. “Sales ended up being around $850 billion this holiday season. The prediction was it would be around $720 billion, so that’s a huge increase.”
The Michigan holiday sales numbers won’t come out for a few weeks, but Holland expects them to be good too since November sales were strong. She says the stock market volatility and the government shutdown didn’t happen until later in December.
