A Few Standouts Among July's Sluggish Retail Sales
Overall, retail sales remained flat—or, in some cases, down—in July, but a few retailers bucked the trend and came out ahead.
Discounters Ross Stores and TJX both reported upticks in same-store sales. Pleasanton, Calif.–based Ross reported a 4 percent increase in same-store sales, and Framingham, Mass.–based TJX, which operates T.J. Maxx and Marshalls stores, reported a 4 percent increase in comp-store sales.
Teen retailer The Buckle continued to post gains, reporting a 2.8 percent increase. And New York–based Aeropostale also reported an increase—6 percent—in comp-store sales.
But for most retailers, same-store sales were down. The numbers were most dramatic for Neiman Marcus (-27.3 percent), Saks (-16.3 percent), JCPenney (-12.3 percent) and Dillard’s (-12 percent). Comp-store sales were down to a lesser degree among many retail chains, including Gap Inc. (-8 percent), Hot Topic (-8.5 percent) Wet Seal (-12.1 percent) and Zumiez (-16.8 percent).
“July chain-store sales were in line with our expectations for the industry and were consistent with the recent trends seen in May and June,” said Michael P. Niemira, chief economist and director of research for the International Council of Shopping Centers, in a statement. The ICSC index found U.S. chain-store sales down by 5 percent in July from last year. “July sales were hampered by leaner inventories as retailers looked to clear out merchandise,” he continued. “Additionally, many states pushed their Back-to-School sales-tax holidays into August, as opposed to July of last year. This sales-tax holiday calendar shift likely pared about 0.5 percentage points from July’s sales growth.”
The ICSC anticipates the weak sales to continue in August, predicting comparable-store sales to decline 4 percent before late Back-to-School shopping and a stabilizing economy help begin bolstering consumer spending again.—Alison A. Nieder
