Stores desperately seeking shoppers on Super Saturday

"We believe the holiday season has been challenging with sales deteriorating more than we anticipated following a relatively strong Black Friday weekend," wrote Stifel, Nicolaus analyst Richard Jaffe.

"In our opinion, a difficult macro environment and adverse weather in the past two weeks (snow storms throughout the Midwest and Northeast, which resulted in an estimated one day of missed sales) have held back sales during the important holiday season."

Traffic to U.S. stores for the week ended December 15 fell 8.9 percent compared with last year, according to ShopperTrak.

NPD's Cohen said some of the decline was due to indecision.

Besides popular electronics like Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii game console and Activision Inc's, Guitar Hero video game, he said shoppers are unsure of what buy.

"They're walking around like lost puppies," he said.

Meanwhile, retailers, worried about protecting their bottom line, did not cut prices as extensively as shoppers wanted after the Thanksgiving weekend.

"Retailers are holding back on giving the big discounts that consumers want this year," said America's Research Group Chairman Britt Beemer, "and as a result retail sales are very weak."

FINAL PUSH

Stores are making a final push this weekend.