ALBANY - Retailers are counting on a last-minute shopping surge during the critical week before Christmas to help them recoup from an otherwise soft December.  In recent years, the Saturday before Christmas – this Saturday – has overtaken “Black Friday” as the busiest shopping day of the year.

Hampered by emergency weather conditions in much of Eastern New York and frustrated by dollar-conscious consumers, only 32 percent of merchants surveyed this week by the Retail Council of New York State indicated they are pleased with the sales activity in their stores since Black Friday weekend.

Retailers throughout the state reported the results through the Retail Council's annual "Holiday Sales Watch," a periodic snapshot of sales activity in stores small and large. This second Holiday Sales Watch was conducted Dec. 15-16 and gauged retailers' perceptions of sales activity since Black Friday weekend. It also captured participants' expectations for the week before Christmas.

Following respectable activity over Black Friday weekend that ran counter to analysts' projections, soft sales in the first two weeks of December disappointed many who hoped the season would fare better than anticipated. Nearly 60 percent of surveyed merchants described their sales the past two weeks as being below their sales last year for the same period of time.