Retailers in Casper and Cheyenne were giving the recent holiday shopping season mixed reviews last week.

Kevin Sadler, owner of Sadler's Hallmark at the Eastridge Mall in Casper, said sales were below expectations and that conversations with other retailers suggested uneven results.

At the JC Penney store, manager Greg Rice rated sales as "okay."

"It wasn't any great record setter by any stretch of the imagination," he said.

The holiday season came against a backdrop of possible recession and political campaigns that were heating up. Sadler said the negative psychological fall-out might have weighed on consumer confidence and sales.

The period around Thanksgiving was very strong, but sales slowed after Dec. 10, Sadler said.

Mall manager Angie McCann said final sales figures for the holiday period won't be known immediately. But her sense was that many store managers were happy with how the year ended.

She projected 2007 sales will be up about 7 percent over the previous year.

Casper is not following national trends, she added. "Lucky for us that we're not."

Across town from the mall at Farnham's Furniture Galleries, Chaz Farnham said he was pleased with holiday sales, which were within a few percentage points of last year and better than he had expected.

Lynn Birleffi of the Wyoming Retail Association surmised that holiday retail sales were generally flat in the state, although some retailers did better than others.

At the Frontier Mall in Cheyenne, hard numbers for December sales were not available last week. General manager Kenneth Burke said it appeared the mall will be up between 7 percent and 9 percent for the year.

As in Casper, Burke said he heard various comments about holiday sales, depending on the store and product line.

But several factors worked in favor of Cheyenne retailers this year, including the opening of new restaurants.

Burke said a survey conducted several years ago indicated the number one reason people shopped for clothing out of town was because they wanted to eat out.

"We're the only mall in our portfolio that had ever gotten an answer like that," he said.

With the new restaurants, coupled with higher gas prices, many people now are opting to shop in Cheyenne, he noted.

New restaurants and retailers also are making Cheyenne more attractive to consumers from northern Colorado, Nebraska and elsewhere in Wyoming.

The mall in 2007 welcomed Mexican eatery Chipotle and the Olive Garden as neighbors.

Many economists fear sluggish retail sales, persistent problems in the housing market, higher oil prices and rising unemployment are leading the U.S. economy into recession.

The National Retail Federation said holiday sales, which combines November and December, rose 3 percent, the lowest since 2002. The Commerce Department reported December sales declined 0.4 percent from November on a seasonally adjusted basis.

"Consumers held tight to their wallets in December, raising questions about whether household spending will be enough to keep us out of a recession," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors told the Associated Press.

For all of last year, U.S. retail sales rose by 4.2 percent. That was down from a 5.9 percent increase in 2006 and marked the smallest rise since 2002, when sales increased by just 2.4 percent as the economy recovered from the 2001 recession.

Last week, the Bush administration and members of Congress huddled on ways to stimulate the weakened economy.

Among the steps being discussed were tax rebates for low and middle income workers in the range of $300 to $800.

Business Editor Tom Mast can be reached at tom.mast@trib.com, or call 307-266-0574.