No Turn On Red

Same store sales for the month of March are in. Easter fell a week earlier this year and that propelled retailers to a strong month. Across the board, analysts projections were beaten and CEOs are congratulating themselves on a job well done.

Mall based specialty retailers saw a stronger month than they had seen in recent memory: Same store sales were up at Abercrombie and Fitch (up 7.0% vs 1.4% estimate), American Eagle (up 20.0% vs 10.9% est), Aeropostale (up 15.9% vs 9.3% est), Hot Topic (3.4% vs 0.3%), and even Pacific Sunwear (14.1% vs 3.3%).

Gap Inc posted an overall increase of 6%, but look at the brand breakdown: Gap North America was up 4% vs. -13% the same month last year, Banana Republic up 8% vs. -7% last year, Old Navy up 10% vs -15% last year, and Gap International down 5% vs -16% last year. Overall the company showed a strong month, but I am most impressed by the gains at Old Navy. Female shoppers must be responding well to the new line of babydoll dresses (I know my girlfriend has! I’m sure at least 2 of Old Navy’s 10 percentage points increase are due to her March shopping).

Mid-tier department store retailers Kohl’s and JCPenney beat estimates with same store sale increases of 16.8% and 10.6% respectively. Nordstrom’s saw sales rise 15%, while Federated struggled and came in short of estimates (3.8%) with same store sales rising only 2.3%.

Like everyone else in my town, I found myself in my local Target at 9:30 the night before Easter looking for candy and easter baskets for my neices & nephews. With the way that place was cleared out, it’s no wonder Target as a chain posted a same store sales increase of 12%. Wal-Mart came in with a 4% increase. Not good, but not great.

More information from Minyanville and CNBC.

I am traditionally leary of the March or April sales on their own, due to the yearly differences in the date of Easter. I’m interested to see how well these numbers hold up when April’s final numbers come out. It looks like most retailers benefitted from the early Easter, which allowed those sales to get lumped in with March’s overall sales - as opposed to April last year.

Will April be as kind to retailers? Time will tell, but I’m betting that with the cold spell over the Northern part of this country that sales are going to be very, very interesting.

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