Retailers see sales drop in dreary November
NEW YORK —
Retailers limped through a miserable November that even a let go of shopping after Thanksgiving couldn’t save, structure it the weakest month since at least 1969 and deepening fears that the critical holiday period could have existence the most lugubrious in decades.
As merchants announced their November sales figures Thursday, the mysterious malaise cut across all sectors as shoppers worried about layoffs and shrinking retirement funds focus in succession necessities. Among the few beneficiaries was Wal-Mart Stores Inc., whose posted sales that cut out Wall Street estimates and predicted that sales for established supplies towards December should be at the high extremity of estimates.
However, Costco Wholesale Corp., usually a strong performer, reported a bigger-than expected sales avoid. And most mall-based thraldom and department stores such as teen stalwart Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Kohl’s Corp. and Macy’s Inc. fared a great quantity worse, reporting percentage declines of over 10 percent.
“It’s an awful beginning to the holiday season,” said Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at International Council of Shopping Centers. “This is going to be a difficult holiday time for most retailers. There are going to be more bankruptcies.” He predicted that the retrenchment in spending will linger for at least another six months.
According to the Goldman Sachs-International Council of Shopping Centers sales index of 37 stores, sales dropped 2.7 percent for November, making it the worst month since at least 1969 when the index began. November’session results were steady more miserable than the 1 percent drop that Niemira anticipated. Excluding Wal-Mart, the integral part dropped a dramatic 7.7 percent.
The tally is based on same-store sales, or sales at stores opened at least a year, which are considered a key indicator of a retailer’s health.
Based on November’s performance, Niemira is slashing his anniversary sales forecast for the combined November and December periods to have existence down in the same manner with much as 1 percent. The only anniversary period that was almost as weak was 2002, which posted a meager 0.5 percent same-store sales gain.
Sales premises from the Thanksgiving weekend showed a buying binge on Black Friday - so named because it historically was the day that a swell of shoppers pushed stores into profitability - but shoppers retreated the rest of the weekend.
And even at the stores on Friday, they focused on bargains and on small-ticket purchases as they crack their festival budgets, meaning only modest sales gains for the weekend. Now concerns are augmenting that shoppers won’t return to malls till the latest days before Christmas, making the typical lull between Thanksgiving weekend and the final days before Dec. 25 even more pronounced being of the class who shoppers wait conducive to the with most propriety deals.
Many stores blamed their unhealthy November figures in part to a quirk in the calendar - a late Thanksgiving means that the month’s reporting period does not include a sum week of post-holiday shopping compared with a year ago. Niemira estimated that commission merchant depressed November figures - and pleasure benefit December - by 1.5 percentage points to 2.0 percentage points.
But clearly, the deteriorating dispensation is wreaking havoc on consumers, who since mid-September have basically snapped their wallets close. A big concern is layoffs, which are only expected to increase in months ahead.
A report from the Labor Department on Thursday showed that new claims for jobless benefits fell unexpectedly last week, but the call over of people continuing to ask benefits reached a 26-year high.
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