Teen Retailers Enjoy a Rebound in April '06

Skyrocketing gasoline prices apparently have not had a negative impact on the retail trade. Moreover, a strong summer season is expected to follow a retail rebound in April, industry analysts said.

“We’ve had these spikes in gas prices before, but prices always went down, and people have resisted changing their habits in the past,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “The U.S. economy is much more resilient than anyone imagined.”

The good news comes on the heels of a lackluster March, when retailers, particularly teen boutiques, stumbled with weak samestore sales. Retail executives expected the Easter holiday, which this year fell in April, would be the cure for their bottom-line blues— and they were right.

New York–based International Council of Shopping Centers reported that same-store sales for the retail sector increased 6.6 percent in April compared to the same time period the previous year. Apparel chain stores sales also performed well in April as sales increased by a strong 5.9 percent compared to the previous year.

Teen retailers seemed to enjoy one of the biggest rebounds in the market. For example, Pacific Sunwear saw its April samestore sales increase 14 percent after a miserable March, when the Anaheim, Calif.–based company’s same-store sales declined 10.9 percent. April same-store sales for New Albany, Ohio–based Abercrombie & Fitch increased 17 percent compared to the previous month.

Jeffrey Van Sinderen, an equities analyst with Los Angeles–based B. Riley & Co., said the rebound is proof that the maxim of warm weather and holidays boosting clothing sales is more than a tired clicheacute;. Teenagers shopped during spring break, and April’s warm weather nationally unlocked pent-up demand for spring fashions.

The sunny summer forecast might reverse the ill fortunes of long-suffering companies such as City of Industry, Calif.–based Hot Topic. Van Sinderen said that one of Hot Topic’s strong suits—the goth look— has been showing up in the collections of high-end fashion labels such as John Galliano’s 2006 line. The look’s popularity may filter down to the shopping mall and revive Hot Topic, whose same-store sales declined 6.5 percent in April. —Andrew Asch