If you had to come up with one word to sum up the Christmas shopping season, "lopsided" is it.
Retailers who specialize in home furnishings, appliances and electronics generally had a good Christmas.Clothing stores, with a few big exceptions, had a difficult time, bringing in sales only by slashing prices.
"I never saw one quite like it," said Daniel Barry, a retail industry analyst with Merrill Lynch & Co.
The season bodes well for the economy despite the mixed results: Consumers were willing to spend, but not if they didn't like the merchandise or the price.
Among the winners were the rejuvenated Sears, Roebuck and Co. and J.C. Penney Co. Inc., both of whom had good clothing sales.
Catalog firms L.L. Bean, Williams Sonoma and Eddie Bauer also had a strong season.
"Our sales are solid and right on plan," John Costello, senior executive vice president at Sears, said Christmas Eve.
Jeffrey Feiner, a Salomon Brothers Inc. analyst, said it appeared overall industry sales would rise a decent 5.5 percent during December, compared to last year's very strong Christmas season.
On the down side, clothing sales at many department and specialty stores suffered, as they have for much of the year, because consumers are dissatisfied with fashion trends.
Salomon Brothers estimated several apparel chains, including Limited Inc., had holiday sales below expectations.
Limited, like a number of other retailers, declined to comment on Christmas, saying it would wait until January, when most big retailers announce their results for the month of December.
Sears' and Penney's strong clothing sales are a result of new merchandising and advertising.
Once perceived as dated and dowdy, Sears has remade itself, advertising "the softer side of Sears."
Penney has done well because consumers see it as offering good value.
Retailers found consumers willing to spend for good value or items that will last a long time. That accounted for good sales of electronics, including stereos and big-screen TVs.
"We're seeing intelligent shopping," Sears' Costello said. "What consumers are interested in is purchasing what they need versus what they want, or they try to get both."
Department store operators appeared to have mixed results, with home business offsetting the problems in clothing.
Procrastinating shoppers kept some retailers guessing until the very end.
"I feel a lot better than I did before this week," Kenneth Macke, chairman of Dayton Hudson Corp., said Friday.
Macke found Dayton Hudson shoppers willing to spend on merchandise if it was new and interesting.