'After Christmas' begins; Retailers already planning sales, deals with TV ads.

• Author: Anderson, Mae
• Position: Business

Byline: Mae Anderson and Anne D'Innocenzio

It's beginning to look a lot like ... the day after Christmas?

On the day before Christmas, retailers turned shoppers' attention to the day after the holiday.

Amazon.com already is offering ''after Christmas'' deals of up to 70 percent off clothes and 60 percent off some electronics. Old Navy is running TV ads that its ''after-holiday sale starts early'' with discounts of up to 75 percent off. And CVS, which opened at 7 a.m. on Christmas Eve, was selling a wine cabinet for $10 off at $39.99 and three fleece throws for $9.99.

Heather Nadler, 38, stopped by the CVS in Decatur, Ga., on Tuesday morning, searching for stuffed animals for her children. And she's still planning to do some shopping after Christmas, when she plans to hit sales at Marshall's and T.J. Maxx.

''I'll probably start shopping for me at that point,'' she said.

Usually stores wait until the day after Christmas to offer deep discounts of up to 70 percent or more on clothes, shoes and other holiday merchandise that didn't sell. But this year, Americans who are still worried about the economy have held tightly to their purse strings. And sales at stores have fallen for the past three consecutive weeks.

The pre-Christmas deals come as retailers are feeling more pressure to attract Americans into stores during the final week of what's typically the busiest shopping period of the year. The two-month period that begins on Nov. 1 is important for retailers because they can make up to 40 percent of their annual sales during that time.

Sales at U.S. stores dropped 3.1 percent to $42.7 billion for the week that ended on Sunday compared with the same week last year, according to ShopperTrak, which tracks data at 40,000 locations. That follows a decline of 2.9 percent and 0.8 percent during the first and second weeks of the month, respectively.

Stores had a problem even getting Americans into stores, let alone getting them to spend. The number of shoppers fell 21.2 percent during the week that ended on Sunday, according to ShopperTrak.

Karen McDonald, a spokeswoman at Taubman Centers, which owns or...