Retail sales in July continued to be a mixture of disappointment and mediocrity.
Retailers catering to teens saw a mixed bag of results as teens decided to spend more money at Aeropostale (same store sales up 6%) and Buckle (same store sales up 2.8%), but both retailers missed analysts projections. American Eagle saw an 11% drop in same store sales, on top of the 7% drop they saw this time last year. Abercrombie & Fitch continued their terminal velocity fall with a 28% drop in same store sales. No good.
Macy’s saw a 10.7% drop in same store sales, JCPenney reported a 12.3% drop in same store sales, while Kohl’s managed to eek out a nearly flat month (0.4% increase in same store sales). I guess shoppers are really going nuts over that new line by Avirl Lavigne.
Besides the general state of the economy and unemployment through the course of the year, some analysts suggest that the, recently enacted and more recently refueled, Cash for Clunkers program is diverting money from the retail industry:
“One of the unintended negative side effects of the cash for clunkers program was that it’s going to remove money that probably would have been spent in retail stores and restaurants and is now going to go toward a car payment,” said Purdue Consumer Sciences Professor Dr. Richard Feinberg.
And not just “spare change.”
Feinberg estimates the nation’s retailers could lose up to $300 million a month as consumers spend their disposable income on loans instead of lunch. By the end of what’s expected to be another tough holiday shopping season, losses could add up to between $1.5 billion and $2.5 billion, Feinberg says.
More information on retail sales from the New York Times and Los Angeles Times.
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Wednesday
December 3, 2008
Talk about targetted advertising. I just saw that this American Eagle post, over at ecommr, is picking up an American Eagle banner via Google Adsense. The post is about the American Eagle e-mail that advertises the BOGO Tops event and the banner is for the same promotion. The banner looks like part of the page now!
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The stimulus checks have been (presumably) spent, back to school shopping is underway, and the retail sales numbers for July are in and they are, well, pretty ugly. A lot of retailers posting negative same-store-sales numbers for the month, many of them posting numbers that fell below Wall Street’s expectations. Wall Street is responding – as of 12:30, the S&P Retail Index is down around $7.
The negative results are hitting all segments of retailers – from department stores to the mall, teen retailers to mass market merchandisers. Wal-Mart posted a positive sales increase of 3.0%, but that is less than the 3.5% increase that Wall Street was looking for. Target saw same store sales drop 1.2% in the month of July and warn that August isn’t going to be much better. JCPeneny’s sales dropped 6.5% but raised their Q2 guidance “due to better than expected sell-through of promotionally priced merchandise and continued expense management measures.” Kohl’s saw a steep 10.4 drop in same store sales in the month.
Gap saw negative numbers across all brands – Old Navy down 16%, Banana Republic down 8%, and Gap North America down 6%. When are they going to spin off the Old Navy brand, sell it, and let someone else deal with the turnaround?
Teen retailers aren’t seeing the Back to School numbers they hoped for with American Eagle down 7%, PacSun was down 4%, Abercrombie & Fitch (as a company) was down 7% (with only A&F proper posting flat numbers, up 1% for the month. Hollister was down 11% – blowing away the 4.1% decrease expected by analysts), but Aeropostale saw sales jump 13%.
More coverage from CNN/Money, Forbes, and Marketwatch.
Reminder, all of July’s numbers are available to analyze over at our partner site, Retail Numbers.
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As always, I’m looking at a ton of e-commerce sites lately. Decided to run through some of the landing pages that I am seeing around the web right now to show off the variety of promotions and marketing going on. Though it’s not as denim-centric as it was two years ago, it’s obvious denim is still the #1 push in the back to school season.
Continue reading this entry
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Another mixed month for retail sales. While some retailers rebounded and look to go into Back to School on a positive note, it was another dark month for some mall and teen retailers.
Wal-Mart beat expectations with a 5.8% increase in June (showing 6.1% increase at their US name-brand stores and a 4.6% increase at their Sam’s Club locations). Target ended up in positive territory with a 0.4% uptick in same store sales. Costco showed a 9% increase, Kohl’s beat estimates with a 2.3% increase, and even mall retailer Aeropostale showed gains with a 12% increase in June.
The month was not as kind to mall and teel retailers such as Gap (company down 7%), Abercrombie (down 3%), and American Eagle (down 11%).
June’s numbers have been posted to Retail Numbers, which allows you to chart and track the retail industry monthly same-store sales.
More coverage from Fox Business and the Associated Press.
Photo above from Flickr user James@mannequindisplay. com, used under Creative Commons.
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Just two quick links for today:
In regards to today’s earlier entry about the perils of catching a shoplifter, I came across another recent story on the same topic. Last week, a shoplifter tried to stab a Home Depot security guard with a screwdriver he just stole.
Then there’s an article from the Billings Gazette about how retailers and others are recruiting teenagers to fill Summer jobs. Good look at a local American Eagle Outfitters location and how the manager there goes about recruiting new employees, as well as some of the methods used by others to fill other, non-retail, jobs.
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Wednesday
August 16, 2006
What a quarter these guys had:
American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NASDAQ:AEOS) today announced that earnings for the second quarter ended July 29, 2006 increased 27% to $0.47 per diluted share from $0.37 per diluted share for the quarter ended July 30, 2005. Included in the second quarter 2006 earnings per diluted share of $0.47 is $0.01 per share of stock option expense, which was not included last year. Net income for the fiscal 2006 second quarter increased to $72.1 million from $58.0 million for the same period last year.
“American Eagle delivered solid top-line growth, outstanding profitability and strong cash flow for the second quarter of 2006,” said CEO Jim O’Donnell. “I am very pleased with this performance, especially in light of the investments we are making in our future growth initiatives, such as our real estate strategy, aerie intimates sub-brand and our new MARTIN + OSA concept. These results are clearly the by-product of a strong and successful team effort across our organization.”
(See full press release here.)
A record earnings quarter for American Eagle and this doesn’t look like a blip – it looks like they are poised for a great second half of 2006.
The key to their success this quarter has really been their mixture of trend-right and basic fashion. They adknowledge that not everyone is ready to go after the latest trends, and their assortment has reflected this. They refer to their denim assortment as over “90% new” in style and washes. The AMC Movie Ticket promotion was a great opportunity to get people in the door and into the dressing room. They seem to be very pleased with how that worked out.
Growth in sales, growth in profit, growth in bottom line performance, growth in transactions per store. They are nailing almost everything that they need to nail. This store is going to be a power house going into the rest of the year.
Some more coverage from The Street and the Motley Fool.
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In case you didn’t get the BTS memo, the trends for this season are as follows:
Denim:
Denim:
Denim:
Denim:
Denim:
Denim:
Denim & tees:
Denim & trees:
and finally.. comforters:
You may finish shopping now.
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First in maybe a weekly column? Hopefully.
Some quick retail notes for this lazy Sunday:
I hear that the new Abrecrombie & Fitch Back To School Preview floorset is this week. The seasonal transition at A&F is very impressive and seamless. Sales will be strong but it will be tough for A&F to compete with themselves and the high comps they had with BTS 2005 (June, July & August had comps of 38%, 22% & 24% in 2005). Look for solid increases in the gross margin with decreases in markdowns and sales for this upcoming season. This will be another great season for A&F.
Two quickies from the Loss Prevention blog: Cop kills man in grocery store shoplifting and Kroger manager jumps on hood of shoplifters car. I have nothing to say about the unfortunate shooting, but Im sure Krogers corporate management doesnt look fondly on employees jumping on cars to apprehend shoplifters. There has to be more to the story than that.
Last week, the Chicago Sun-Times ran an article showing where some of the former Sears executives have gone: Life After Sears.
And finally, a story from Starbucks showing how a good idea from worker, combined with the support of co-workers, the corporate office and customers can lead to a very positive outcome: Starbucks worker brews plan to get java to GIs in Afghanistan. A Starbucks employee from Maine organized a campaign where her co-workers donated their weekly bag of coffee they recieve as a benefit and, with corporate approval, solicited donations from customers. The result? 106 pounds of coffee sent to troops in Afghanistan. [via Starbucks Gossip]
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The May comp store numbers for the retail industry:
In the mall: Abercrombie up 3.0, Aeropostale down 1.1, American Eagle up 11.0, Ann Taylor up 12.0 , Hot Topic down 6.0, Limited Brands up 7.0, and Pacific Sunwear down 2.6. Gap as a company was down 6.0, however the break down between companies is interesting. Gap North America was down 5.0, Gap International is down 13.0, Old Navy was down 8.0, but Banana Republic is starting to show signs of a turnaround with a 3.0 positive comp.
In the department store sector: Dillards up 3.0, Federated up 9.2, JC Penny up 11.1, Kohls up 3.1, Nordstrom up 7.8, and Saks up 5.7.
In the battle of Target v. Wal-Mart and warehouse stores v. warehouse stores, Target was up 5.7 & Wal-Mart was up 2.0. Sams Club was up 4.0 while BJs Wholesale was up 4.2 and Costco was up 10.0.
Generally a pretty positive month across the board. Gap continues to struggle and Kohls is curiously one of the few companies with positive marks that didnt beat investor estimates. Pacific Sunwear was down 2.6 after a fantastic April in which they posted a 14.0 positive comp.
Minyanville posts a good roundup of the May numbers, covering some retailers I didn’t cover here.
Interesting month and a good start to the Summer season in retail.
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