Retailers at the Hamilton Place mall in Chattanooga,Tennessee, put out the big discount signs in the final week before Christmas.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Bad news for retailers: Shoppers seems to be winning the game of chicken this holiday season.

Industry analysts say the fact that consumers didn't besiege malls in the last weekend before Christmas despite the juicy sales shows bargain-hungry shoppers are willing to hold out until the last minute in hopes of getting the very best deals.

For retailers, the deliberate procrastination on the part of consumers is a nail-biting scenario, said Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst with market research firm NPD Group.

"Retailers have reached the witching hour," said Cohen. "Consumers this year have demonstrated that they are shopping for price and they'll wait for as long as they have to for the deals."

"The other problem confronting consumers is that there's nothing very compelling to buy. I don't think retailers were prepared for how this might affect the important sales season," he added.

Even if they weren't well-prepared before the season got underway, retailers are reacting to the sluggish sales trends by slashing prices further in a race to win the last-minute rush.

For instance, apparel retailer Gap Inc. (Research) this week accelerated discounts across winter merchandise and accessories at its namesake Gap stores and the lower-priced Old Navy chains.

Toy retailer KB Toys slashed prices by as much as 75 percent and department store chain Macy's, a unit of Federated Department Stores (Research), is offering a "last-minute rush" sale with 50 percent off all merchandise.

Could this be too little too late?

Said Cohen, "In my opinion, retailers reached the point of no return two weeks ago. If they weren't faring well then, then that's it."

"The aim now is to reduce inventory so that retailers enter into the second chapter of the season, or the after-Christmas period, looking as lean as possible," he added. "They also need to clean up their stores before the gift-card rush arrives. These customers will be turned off by stores that look messy and disorganized."