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The biggest December snowstorm on record in Maryland put a major damper on the holiday shopping season, forcing many stores to close on the key Saturday before Christmas as shoppers were few and far between.

Sales were likely off from expected totals by 60 percent to 80 percent on Saturday, said Thomas Saquella, president of the Maryland Retailers Association. Sunday's sales were off from projections, too, but probably not as much, he said.

"We took a big hit," Saquella said. "We went through the great recession, and now we're dealing with the great blizzard. Nobody ever said retailing is easy."

The organization had forecast a 1 percent to 1.5 percent gain in holiday sales for state retailers this year over last year. But the snowstorm could make it hard to see any uptick this year, Saquella said. Maryland retailers saw a 5 percent decline last year from 2007 as the economy nosedived, and there was a smaller drop in 2007 from 2006.

Holiday sales are described by the industry as those occurring in November and December, the two months when retailers typically post about 20 percent of their revenues for the year.

"Quite frankly, I don't see how we can make [a gain this year]," Saquella said.

Numerous stores, such as Borders bookstore, remained open late this week to try to make up for the lost business.

Arundel Mills in Hanover closed at 2 p.m. last Saturday, said Wendy Ellis, director of mall marketing and business development. But the crowds visiting stores such as Neiman Marcus Last Call and the new Lego store were huge on both Sunday and Monday, she said.

The mall had a strong week before the storm, and officials expected more heavy traffic this week that could make up for Saturday, she said.

The 20.5 inches of snow Saturday at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Linthicum smashed the old December single-day record of 11.5 inches set in 1932, the National Weather Service reported Monday. That was also the fifth largest daily snowfall ever at BWI since record-keeping began there in 1893.

December single-day records of 16 inches at Washington Dulles International Airport and 15 inches at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, both in Virginia, were also set, according to the weather service. The snowfall at National Airport was the third most for one day since records started there in 1884.

Online boost

While mall traffic plummeted last weekend, online shopping likely saw a big boost, said Peter Morici, a professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park, and former chief economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.

The late online shoppers were forced to select express shipping, proving a bonanza for online retailers, he said. Express shippers such as UPS and FedEx also benefited, Morici said.