May Retail Sales: Best & Worst
General, Finance June 1st, 2006- Best: Target comps of 5.7%, beating analysts’ estimates of 4.8%, continued to outperform arch nemesis Wal-Mart
- Worst: Wal-Mart same-store sales of 2.3%, below analysts’ estimates of 2.9%. Who is to blame? Fuel prices, of course
- Best: JC Penney (11% comps), Federated (9.2%), Saks (1.1%) and TJ Maxx (4%)
- Worst: Gap (-6%, but to be honest, no surprises here), Pacific Sunwear (-2.6%) and Hot Topic (-3.5%)
- Last but not least, Sharper Image, with a -36% drop in same-store sales.
Good numbers across the board, particularly at the department stores who had been struggling for the past couple of months.
Wal-Mart continues to struggle to achieve Target’s pace, but new initiatives to target to the higher income consumer that shops the left side of the store (consumables) are under way, so we might see a shift in the months to come.
