US Retail Sales Reports Show Positive Signs for Discount Stores

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Post Date: 12 May 2009    Viewed: 705

If retail sales reports for April serve as an indication of the future, American discount retailers will have a better than expected year, after a disastrous holiday season saw record-breaking losses for the nation's largest stores.

Reports for major retailers Wal-Mart, Macy's, and JCPenny released last week show that American consumers have gradually returned to the stores, helping stores either meet or exceed management expectations for their April 2009 results.

 

Luxury department stores, however, continued to suffer greatly from the recession, posting huge declines. Nordstrom sales dropped 11%, Neiman Marcus declined by 23% percent, and Saks was down 32% compared to the same period last year.

 

Leading the positive sales results was retail giant Wal-Mart, which posted a 5.9% sales increase compared to April last year for its U.S. stores. Wal-Mart said that the Easter holiday had contributed to the sales boost which was felt mostly in the grocery, health and wellness, hardlines, entertainment and home categories. Wal-Mart's international sales dropped 7%.

 

Although JCPenny reported a decrease in sales of 6.6% for April, the company said the results were better than the company's guidance of a

9–12% decrease from the same period last year. Among the strongest sales were women’s and children’s apparel, whereas fine jewelry experienced the weakest sales during the month.

 

Macy's department stores reported total sales of $1.692 billion in April, a decrease of 9.4% in from the same period lat year. The company said that the figure is "consistent with management's expectations." Online sales (macys.com and bloomingdales.com combined) were up 14.5% in April and 16.2% for the first quarter of 2009 and positively affected the Company's first quarter 2009 same-store sales.