Costco Seen Gaining Holiday Sales as Shoppers Skittish: Retail

Shoppers at stores from Best Buy Co. to Gap Inc. and Toys “R” Us Inc. all said in a recent poll that they’ll spend less this holiday season than last year. Customers plan to buy more at only one chain: Costco Wholesale Corp.

Such may be the story of the 2011 holiday shopping season, in which consumers who splurged last year focus their spending on more practical items amid persistent joblessness and choppy stock markets, said Pam Goodfellow, an analyst at Worthington, Ohio-based BIGresearch, whose consulting arm conducted the survey of 9,000 shoppers at 11 chains.