August '04 Brings the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
August was downright breezy for some specialty stores and department stores that deal in luxury and fashion. The Neiman Marcus Group Inc. of Dallas posted a strong same-store sales increase of 14.7 percent, and Bebe Stores Inc. of Brisbane, Calif., reported a samestore sales increase of 9.2 percent.
August, however, was painful for many other retailers. The International Council of Shopping Centers in New York reported that apparel chains had a slight 1.1 percent year-over-year sales increase. Negative comparative-store sales were reported by 11 of the 21 chain stores tracked by the California Apparel News retail index. The bad news was spread throughout retail’s various apparel sectors.
Blue collar–friendly department store Sears, Roebuck & Co., based in Hoffman Estates, Ill., showed a 6.1 percent decline in same-store sales. And high-end retailer Ann Taylor Stores Corp. stumbled for the first time this year with a 4.5 percent decline in samestore sales. But the company’s Ann Taylor Loft division posted a 2.7 percent increase in comp sales in August. Ann Taylor Chairman J. Patrick Spainhour wrote in a company statement that he expected Ann Taylor to bounce back quickly with the debut of the company’s Fall collections.
While August brought bad times for many, Michael Niemira, chief economist for the International Council of Shopping Centers, cautioned against dismissing the entire economy as weak.
“It was a very difficult month,” Niemira said. “But it is not as weak as it looks on the surface.”
Niemira said the month would have looked healthier if Labor Day had been earlier. Companies also blamed Hurricane Charley for hurting sales in August.
Niemira forecast that some of the economy’s weak tendencies will linger through much of 2004. “However, the degree of that softness will depend on gasoline prices and the economic bounce back. There are some positive signs out there,” he said.
The economist specifically pointed to the fact that American employers added 144,000 workers to payrolls in August, the biggest increase since May. —A.A.
