The 2009 holiday sales season (along with the rest of the fourth quarter of this year) will be bad for retailers, predicts Retail Forward, in a bit of forecasting that's hard to disagree with. The retail consultancy is predicting average 4Q09 retail sales will neither grow nor decline when compared to abysmal 4Q08 retail sales. Zero percent growth, Retail Forward pointed out, will be the second-worst growth in more than 40 years--only 2008 being worse.