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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A few of the stories I’m reading and wanted to share today:
John Zogby’s got a very insightful look into the political trends of retail consumers and dives behind the numbers to make sense of it all. He looks at presidential election polling numbers, the retailers the customers shop at, and how this relates to the retailers’ branding.
J.Crew’s website has had their share of mistakes and downtime lately. Church of the Customer is talking about the apology e-mail that the retailer sent out to their customers and what this means for the company.
Matt at A New Marketing presents a clean, easily digestable definition of what social media is.
.. and finally - Starbucks is offering a $2 discount on iced beverages in the afternoon when you buy a drink in the morning. I think this is a smart move that should drive repeat business throughout the day. Besides that, I’m selfish and now look forward to saving a little bit of money on my second trip to Starbucks every day.
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Today, JCPenney has announced the launch of a new activewear line called Xersion. The line, developed, sourced, and designed by the retailer, fits in the “better” pricepoint of Womens activewear. This is one of the six brands JCPenney is launching with this back to school season.
More details are available in their own press release.
Timing of this launch is interesting as Kohl’s readies to launch their exclusive licensing agreement for activewear with Fila. Makes sense that JCPenney would want to ramp up their private label activewear offerings.
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Someone forgot to merchandise these products in the J.Crew store:
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It’s official:
Boscov’s Inc., the 9,500-employee department-store chain founded in 1911 in Reading, Pennsylvania, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Wilmington, Delaware, today, citing decreased consumer spending.
Boscov’s, which said in court papers that it’s the biggest family-owned full-service department store chain in the U.S., will immediately close 10 of its 49 stores. The company said it will borrow as much as $250 million from a group of lenders led by Bank of America Corp. to help it restructure.
The Associated Press has the full list of stores that are closing:
MARYLAND
Marley Station Mall, Glen Burnie
Owings Mills Mall, Owings Mills
White Marsh Mall, Baltimore
NEW JERSEY
Monmouth Mall, Eatontown
PENNSYLVANIA
Harrisburg East Mall, Harrisburg
Monroeville Mall, Monroeville
Montgomery Mall, North Wales
Oxford Valley Mall, Langhorne
South Hills Village Mall, Bethel Park
VIRGINIA
Piedmont Mall, Danville
More coverage from the Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, and Reuters.
This is a blow to the retailer that touts itself as American’s largest family owned department store. In an age of consolidation and rapid, national, retail expansion, Boscov’s was one of the last regional department store chains that we had here in the Mid-Atlantic.
I wonder how many of these locations are being scouted by JC Penney and Kohl’s.
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Let’s play a game. I’ll name two retailers and you guess which one has more locations in the five boroughs of New York City. Ready?
Starbucks vs. Dunkin’ Donuts
McDonald’s vs. Burger King
Rite Aid vs. CVS
Coach vs. H&M vs. Pinkberry
Best Buy vs. American Apparel
According to a new study from the NYC-based think tank, Center for an Urban Future, the numbers are suprising.
Dunkin Donuts has more locations (341) in the five boroughs than Starbucks (235). Though Starbucks’ has more than double the amount of Manhattan locations (186 vs 78). McDonald’s has 248 locations compared to Burger King’s paltry 92. Rite Aid has 209 locations to CVS’s 108, but not as much as NYC-favorite Duane Reade (with 216 locations). Coach and H&M have as many NYC locations as California upstart Pinkberry (all with 12 locations in the city) and would you believe that American Apparel has more locations than Best Buy (16 vs 9).
The details revealed by the study are interesting, with a thorough breakdown of how many locations each retailer has in each borough. It is worth downloading the PDF and taking a look at their results.
Couple of interesting commentaries on the report from the New York Daily News, the New York Observer, and the New York Post.
Photo above from Flickr user lab2112, used under Creative Commons.
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Spent some time in Atlantic City this weekend and I love the growth of retail down there. I’ve talked about the rise of retail in the city before. What really interested me this weekend was some of the new construction going on in the The Walk / Atlantic City Outlets. Recent openings include Eddie Bauer, The Children’s Place, Adidas, Easy Spirit, and BCBG Max Azria. There’s still more construction going on, including locations for T-Mobile and G By Guess (which will actually be the third Guess-related location in the city, after the Guess located in The Pier at Caesar’s and the Guess Factory location elsewhere in the outlets).
What I got a kick out of where the notes on the windows of two stores. Both Jones New York (first photo) and Maidenform (second photo) stores are opening soon, apparently:
I have got to say that, from what I could see through the windows, the Jones New York store looks great. Perfectly folded and displayed merchandise, ready for customers to come in and tear it apart!
I’ve got some more photos from Atlantic City coming later in the week.
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