October wasn’t the month retail analysts were hoping for, as U.S. stores from Target to Abercrombie & Fitch posted lackluster sales results that spurred some fears of weak holiday trends.
Overall, 61 percent of U.S. retailers reported sales at stores open at least a year — a key retail metric known as “same store sales” — that were below Wall Street estimates, according to Retail Metrics.
But rosier results came from certain apparel sellers including teen retailer Aeropostale, department store operators Nordstrom and J.C. Penney and off-price retailer TJX Cos.
Analysts, who had thought that cooler October temperatures and lower gas prices would boost October sales, have been eyeing a disappointing 0.5 percent rise in same-store sales at Wal-Mart, a bellwether for the retail sector, to gauge whether it has broader implications of a spending slowdown.
More bullish retail watchers say that October may have just been the month when consumers pulled back from shopping after a strong September month, and that a robust November and December are still on the horizon.
Read about overall retail results in October here and see how specialty apparel retailers did here.
| Oct-06 | Oct-06 | ||||
| Analysts’ | same-store | No. of | same-store | ||
| Company | estimates* | sales(est)# | Estimates | sales (act)^ | |
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| Wal-Mart | – | – | – | 0.5## | |
| Target | 4 to 5 | 4.3 | 14 | 3.9 | |
| Costco | 4 to 6 | 4.7 | 12 | 4.0 | |
| BJ’s Wholesale | 0 to 2 | 1.1 | 12 | -0.7 | |
| TJX Cos. | 2.5 to 5 | 3.6 | 7 | 5.0 | |
| Dollar General | 2 to 4 | 2.9 | 9 | 1.9 | |
| Family Dollar | 0 to 3 | 2.5 | 9 | 1.0 | |
| Ross Stores | 3 to 4 | 3.5 | 5 | 3.0 | |
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| Department Stores | |||||
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| Kohl’s | 2 to 12 | 6.9 | 16 | 4.2 | |
| JC Penney | 2 to 13 | 6.1 | 14 | 8.1 | |
| Federated | 3.5 to 7 | 5.8 | 12 | 7.7 | |
| Nordstrom | 2 to 12 | 6.4 | 16 | 10.7 | |
| Saks | 2 to 7 | 3.7 | 10 | 9.2 | |
| Dillard’s | 4 to 0 | 1.9 | 9 | -5.0 | |
| Bon-Ton Stores | 0 to 2 | 1.0 | 2 | -9.7 | |
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| Gap | 6 to 0.5 | 2.3 | 11 | -7.0 | |
| Limited | 6 to 10 | 7.6 | 9 | 9.0 | |
| Abercrombie | 1 to 8 | 2.3 | 12 | -3.0 | |
| Hot Topic | 7 to -4 | 5.6 | 8 | -7.2** | |
| Chico’s FAS | 2 to 3 | 0.6 | 9 | -4.1 | |
| American Eagle | 7 to 13 | 9.9 | 13 | 8.0 | |
| Aeropostale | 3 to 6 | 3.8 | 8 | 5.6 | |
| Pacific Sunwear | 9 to -1 | 5.4 | 10 | -7.1 | |
| Ann Taylor | 0 to 5.3 | 2.4 | 9 | -0.5 | |
| Gymboree | 3 to 10 | 5.8 | 5 | 10.0 | |
| Bebe | 8 to 20 | 10.3 | 6 | 8.2 | |
| Claire’s Stores | 0 to 1.8 | 1.0 | 4 | -1.0 | |
| Children’s Place | 7 to 9 | 8.0 | 4 | 10.0 | |
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| Pier 1 Imports | 10 to -5 | 8.2 | 5 | 13.7 | |
| Sharper Image | 17.5 to -16.1 | 16.8 | 2 | 31.0 | |
##For U.S. stores
**Reported on Wednesday
(Table compiled by Kuncheria Cholemkeril in Bangalore)
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