New York ? The critical last weekend before Christmas didn’t deliver the sale bonanza merchants were hoping for, with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announcing Monday that last-minute buying showed “some improvement” but was not enough to offset weak business in the early part of the month.

The world’s largest retailer said December same-store sales growth was still tracking at the low end of its projected 3 percent to 5 percent range. For the second week in a row, traffic was down from year-ago levels for the week ended Friday, the company said on its prerecorded conference call.

Same-store sales — sales at stores opened at least a year — are considered the best indicator of a retailer’s health.

The federal government’s raised terror alert status, announced Sunday, also is seen as a headache for merchants, which are now counting on heavy shopping this week to meet their goals.

Said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group, based in Charleston, S.C.: The threat “could reduce retailers’ ability to have huge business on Monday and Tuesday, and the week after Christmas. It may likely make people who are close to being done decide they’ve purchased enough.”

Some representatives of retail firms and organizations disagreed.

“Consumers learned to be vigilant, and I don’t think this will have an effect” on their shopping, said Karen MacDonald, a spokeswoman at Taubman Centers Inc., which owns and manages 31 shopping centers in 13 states.

Ellen Tolley, a spokeswoman at the National Retail Federation, agreed, saying that “since Sept. 11, consumers have learned to go on with their lives,” and she doesn’t foresee traffic being hurt.

Discounters and luxury stores fared the best this past weekend, according to Beemer. But at mid-priced department stores and mall-based apparel chains, which deepened price cuts on sweaters, jewelry and other items, sales were uneven, continuing the trend seen throughout the season, Beemer said Sunday.

Three-month-old Aidan Tedesco of Omaha, Neb., center, sleeps in his stroller amid a crush of shoppers waiting in line to meet Santa at Oakview Mall in Omaha. The shoppers were waiting in line Monday. Retailers reported modest weekend sales but are hoping for a profit boost today and Wednesday from last-minute shoppers.

“I think it was a very strong weekend, but I don’t think it was as big as retailers needed,” said Beemer, based on interviews with retail clients. He added that consumers “were looking at the lowest price in each category of merchandise.”

At the Valley West Mall in West Des Moines, Iowa, Connie Ferree, was shopping with her mother for 50 to 60 gifts for her relatives, but she said she’s spending far less this December.

“The job situation is bad,” said Ferree, who has been struggling to find a job in Ames, Iowa. She said she had begun her shopping last week, and was hunting discounted items.

Despite a recovering economy, merchants struggled with modest sales throughout the season and were counting even more for a sales surge this past weekend after two weekends of Northeast snowstorms. Retailers also are holding out hope that the last-minute spending in the three days before Christmas will help merchants meet their sales goals.

“Traffic was about the same as last year, and stores were very busy,” said Tolley on Sunday. “And if some stores were a little short of their goal, there’s plenty of time for that to change.”

She noted that the National Retail Federation is still sticking to its holiday forecast for a 5.7 percent gain in total sales from a year ago.

Online sales, which account for an overall small portion of holiday results, have been performing at the high end of expectations. Online sales were up 31 percent to $1.88 billion for the week ended Friday, according to comScore Networks.

ComScore Networks said that holiday online sales are expected to generate sales growth at the high end of its forecast of 25 percent to 30 percent.

On land, the Saturday before Christmas has been the busiest day of the season for the past several years. Last year, the Monday before Christmas was the second biggest sales day.

In 2002, the last week before Christmas accounted for 41 percent of holiday sales, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

This year, consumers appear to be waiting longer. According to the association’s survey, conducted from Dec. 4-10, 10 percent of the approximate 6,800 consumers polled had completed their shopping, compared with 15 percent during the same time a year ago.

Many stores, particularly department stores and apparel stores, had refrained from aggressive discounting earlier in the season, hoping consumers would be willing to pay full price, but the strategy appeared to have backfired.

And plenty of stores added “unplanned broad-based discounts” this weekend, according to Tom Filandro, senior retail analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group. Limited Inc.’s Express, for example, offered 40 percent off on all sweaters in the stores.

Of course, that’s good news for consumers like Margo Whisman, who started her shopping on Friday.

“We’re just procrastinators, and that’s why we get the sales,” said Whisman, who was at the Mall St. Matthews in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday at JC Penney Co.