On this day, discounts were deeper than the snow

Katie and Jessica Spear of Lebanon were happy with their shopping expedition at JC Penney on Thursday. (Harrison Thorp photo)

ROCHESTER - As driving conditions deteriorated amid a steady snow, sisters Katie and Jessica Spear emerged from JC Penney’s on Thursday grinning from ear to ear.

And for good reason. Inside the store they’d found discounts of up to 70 percent, sometimes even deeper than Black Friday.

“We got gift cards and we returned some stuff, and then we bought a lot more stuff,” said Katie as she went to place packages in a car.

The Spears, of Lebanon, were two of thousands of Rochester area shoppers who braved Thursday’s treacherous driving to score some post-Christmas bargains at stores like JC Penney, Kohl’s and other area retailers.

Whenever analysts see discounts go south of 50 percent, it raises eyebrows, but with an overall disappointing shopping season, several days lost due to bad weather and a shortened buying season thanks to a late Thanksgiving, what’s a retailer to do.

For the last full week of shopping Dec. 16-22, in-store retail sales were down 3.1% from the same week last year, according to ShopperTrak, which analyzes retail shopping trends.

"Traffic is down dramatically, and that's driven by the ability to virtually window shop," says ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin. In fact, the number of people visiting brick-and-mortar stores was down 21.2% from the same period in 2012.

To lure shoppers from virtual window shopping mode to brick and mortar buy mode, discounts this year went absolutely stupid.

Over at Kohl’s, which opened at 5 a.m., a manager, Robert, who wouldn’t give his last name, said 50-percent discounts were commonplace. He said crowds were “good” but would not comment on whether they were larger or smaller than last year’s day after Christmas.

A manager at Staples referred all questions to corporate.

Online sales were the only bright spot this year for retailers, up a little more than 10 percent over last year, but that didn’t make up for the overall shortfall.

Back at JC Penney manager Jon Herrick noted the store had plenty of 60 percent discounts and that they had sold a lot of gift cards, which were being cashed in by folks like the Spears on Thursday.

Just how long the deep discounts will continue is uncertain, but analysts are doubtful it’s done just yet. Stores have a lot of extra inventory they have to cash in.