According to the survey, just a few standards such as food, front-end drug stores and off-price retailers had strong numbers in March. "The majority of the industry was weak," according to an ICSC report. For the month, apparel-specialty chain store sales, on a same-store basis, fell 11.2% year over year, with Chico's FAS dropping 20.7% and the Gap down 18%.
Department-store sales were off by 8.2%, and luxury-department-store business was down 5.3%, with Kohl's dropping 15.5% and J.C. Penney down 12.3$. Discount-store sales fell 0.3%, with both Family Dollar and Target dropping 4.4%, but Wal-Mart moving up 0.9%, the report said.
Drugstores and wholesale clubs were the only winners, posting 4% and 5.1% gains, respectively. Walgreens posted a 4.4% hike in same-store sales, while Costco saw a 7% raise, giving rise to the theory that people only want to make short store trips, or to buy in bulk, in the troubled economy.
The Easter shift is expected to boost the year-over-year comp sales for April by 2% to 2.5%, though record-high gasoline prices and economic distress may curb consumer discretionary spending, the ICSC report says.
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