KY Retail Federation: despite inflation, holiday shopping season off to good start

A spokesman for an organization representing thousands of Kentucky businesses said holiday shopping is off to a good start. Steve McClain is director of public affairs and communications for the Kentucky Retail Federation.

“Kentucky’s numbers tend to kind of go along with what the national forecast is closely nationally, the National Retail Federation is forecasting a two and a half to three and a half percent increase over last year.”

McClain said those numbers are down from 2020, when there was a lot of stimulus money in the economy. He said the National Retail Federation predicted about 179 million people would shop in person and online over the five-day Thanksgiving period, and that number wound up being about 183 million. McClain said it’s too early to tell whether talk of new tariffs from President-elect Trump is having an impact.

“We did see some stories where retailers were ordering goods and products leading into the end of the year, to try to get ahead of any kind of tariffs.”

McClain said some consumers may choose to buy a new TV or washer-dryer set made overseas for the same reason.

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