Posted on 12/04/2004 9:54:58 AM PST by snowsislander
The holiday shopping season is off to a sluggish start [...]
Retailers yesterday reported mostly disappointing sales for November -- confirming worries that tepid results over Thanksgiving weekend weren't limited to giant Wal-Mart, and that most American consumers simply aren't in a free-spending holiday mood. [...]
"There was widespread speculation about whether Wal-Mart's poor results represented those of retailing as a whole," says Bill Dreher, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in New York. "Increasingly, it looks as though they do."
Wal-Mart and other discounters may face the toughest holiday prospects, as lower-income shoppers continue to struggle amid a lackluster job market, tepid wage growth and high gasoline and home-heating bills. [...] However, results for upscale venues such as Nordstrom Inc. and Neiman Marcus Group Inc. also failed to meet analysts' expectations.
[...]
Many department stores and specialty chains located at malls also reported disappointing November sales, saying that customer traffic declined significantly after seeing healthy increases in October. Federated Department Stores Inc., which operates Macy's and Bloomingdale's, said its same-store sales declined 1.4%, missing its own forecast. [...]
[...]
LEADERS & LAGGERS
[...]
Biggest Gains
Bebe Stores 23%
American Eagle 23%*
Gadzooks 13%
Starbucks 13%
J.C. Penney 12%
Biggest Losses
Wet Seal -20%
Bombay Company -13%
Mothers Work -12%
Gymboree -10%
Pier 1 Imports -9.1%
* Includes American Eagle and Bluenotes/Thriftys stores
[...]
[...] Target Corp. -- Wal-Mart's smaller, trendier rival -- said its same-store sales matched Wall Street's expectation of a 3.2% increase, and said it expects its December same-store sales to jump 3% to 5%. Staples such as food and pharmacy items fueled sales, and shoes also were hot sellers, Target said.
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
the restaurants and all their employees are americans. in this economy, a waitress at a busy restaurant like the Outback makes a good wage. I know a fellow who works as a head restaurant manager of a Chili's - who makes $90K per year.
On the bright side, even if he would have been elected, he wouldn't have been in office this Christmas.
I think everyone is in wait and see mode. Customers waiting for after Christmas sales, and retailers waiting as long as they can to lower prices.
Actually there were a lot of stories about walmart deciding on new advertising blitzes and lowering prices.
but there were all made up stories. because everyone on FR says things are great.
retailers need to start long term plans now... with the liberal attack on anything Christian, we might see a day where only true Christians celebrate Christmas. Retailers cant rely on a big holiday season to float the rest of the year forever
Giving gifts is a great way to celebrate the birth of Christ.
The tradition of gift giving began with the 3 Kings bringing frankincense and gold to the baby Jesus Christ Himself.
Nothing wrong with this as far as I can see.
I believe retailers record the sale of a gift certificate when purchased, not when redeemed. so those purchases count in the current sales figures.
QUIT BUYING WORTHLESS CRAP
Are you sure? I've always heard gift certificates are not reflected in sales figures until they are redeemed.
I am not sure. but I thought I had read that an amazingly high percentage (relatively speaking) never redeem all or part of these gift cards, that some percentage of those sales end up being pure profit for the retailers.
>Well, Lionelwent banko about a month ago.<
I'm very sorry to hear that. I am afraid there are more
"bankos" to follow, putting it mildly.
That's a very good idea. Outback is based in Florida, if memory serves, and has seemed to do a good job of growing their business.
we do more to help the US economy - by buying services and giving them as gifts. its harder to buy services and gift them however, but something like a restaurant gift certificate is a good choice.
Jubilee is a time of release from an ever increasing spiral of debt burden, or indenturement. Of course that word "jubilee" in common usage means a joyous happy time. Doesn't have to be.
Doesn't have to be joyous or happy. If fact, throughout history they haven't been -- because except in ancient Israel and perhaps some rare times places otherwise, economic resets of this sort are not planned and managed according to law.
They have been called Busts in the lightest of normal cases, Great Depressions in more severe cases or riot, chaos, upheaval, and revolution in the severe cases -- in the most severe they have destroyed whole civilizations.
"Jubilee" events, all.
If the United States defaults on its debt -- or even seriously threatens to do so -- it won't be a happy time here. It will be a disaster of the first water. We would be very, very unhappy for a very long time.
That's what I've had to resort to this year - making gifts and being creative. No cash after losing job = no Christmas shopping and no shopping for birthdays etc for the last 6 months. When I go on unemployment after my severence pay runs out, you'll be covering my expenses with your taxes. Wasn't going to do that; but, at this point - doesn't look like there's much choice in the matter. There's nothing to be had here.
Bunk - People don't back off spending 300 bucks at target because gas went up 10 cents a galon.
Did China come out of its fog yet? It was in a great fog last week.
They said Walmart is down while Nordstrom is doing it's best season in years... bottom line the people who shop Walmart are hurting due to high gas prices and resulting high fuel costs... people who shop Nordstrom don't care what a tank of gas costs.
Actually, the WSJ article says this about Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus:
"However, results for upscale venues such as Nordstrom Inc. and Neiman Marcus Group Inc. also failed to meet analysts' expectations."
This article suggests that even upscale retailers aren't doing up to par, so I went and did a news search on Google, and found this article from Forbes via the AP, dated December 2nd:
Associated Press
Nordstrom Same-Store Sales Increase
12.02.2004, 07:57 AM
Upscale retailer Nordstrom Inc. said same-store sales, or sales for stores open at least one year, increased 3.1 percent in November.
Total sales rose 6.2 percent to $667.6 million for the four-week period ended Nov. 27, from $628.4 million a year earlier.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call were expecting same-store sales growth of 5 percent for the month.
For the year-to-date period, total sales rose 10.9 percent to $5.7 billion from $5.1 billion. Same-store sales for the period increased 8.4 percent.
Like the other numbers, this sounds mixed. The same-store numbers underperformed for November as the WSJ noted, but I would say that a year-to-date year-on-year growth of 8.4% is good for same-store sales. But I would certainly would have liked to have seen strong November same-store sales to go with the rest of the year.
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