Slow holiday store sales taking its toll on retailers and designers

At least one indicator, the Prodco Retail Traffic Index, shows holiday store traffic down about 10 percent so far and the casualties are already surfacing. Yoana Baraschi, a designer whose items were found at Neiman Marcus, Saks and Bloomingdale’s, has closed her business after 15 years. And jeweler Gerard Yosca has done the same, after 30 years in the trade. Both cite slow department store sales as the biggest cause of their demise.