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A 14-point jump in consumer confidence from April did not translate at cash registers for the month of May. With sales remaining largely flat, the retail sector may have finally bottomed out.
Year-to-date sales for All Stores excluding Motor Vehicle and Parts Dealers and Gasoline Stations were flat at -2.8%; overall, All Stores sales were down -10.2% year-to-date.
With no real winning sectors, there were still some ‘survivors’. At the top of the list, Health and Personal Care Stores saw a slight increase of 3.0% in this year’s sales.
With the weather remaining temperate overall, sales for Food Services and Drinking Places still managed to increase by 1.7%.
Food and Beverage Stores sales were flat at 0.2% while Grocery Stores results dipped by -0.3%.
While generally honed in on low-price-point products, Walmart is supplementing its sales with a focus on grocery items. Overall, General Merchandise Stores saw no growth in year-to-date sales.
Sales of Clothing and Accessories Stores were down -6.9%. While some retailers such as Abercrombie and Fitch saw comparable store sales drop significantly by -28%, Aeropostale enjoyed growth in comparable store sales of 19%.
Elsewhere, the online sector continues to play a strong role in the growth of retailers. Online sales for The Children’s Place were not only positive but it bettered its overall sales results by a 10-point spread.
In general, results tended to be slightly worse in May, compared to year-to-date results for retailers associated with the home sector.
Furniture and Home Furnishing Stores were down double digits, by -14.8% year-to-date.
Results for Building Material and Garden Equipment Stores fell -11.7% in 2009.
Electronics and Appliance Stores sales declined by -8.2%. Despite one less competitor in the electronics market, Best Buy is testing the sale of outdoor equipment (e.g., patio furniture) by way of its online store as a means to grow sales.
As part of this month’s NRB, we’ve also included a special supplement on e-commerce retail customer satisfaction results for various countries.
Join us next month to see whether the upwards trending in consumer confidence will finally impact retail sales; or whether coupled with current increases in gas prices and a consumer habit to remain cautious it will take a few more months before retailers see any positive impact at home.
Special Supplement: International E-Commerce Retail Customer Satisfaction
Release Date of the Next National Retail Bulletin: July 14, 2009
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Please note:
The J.C. Williams Group National Retail Bulletin compares the latest monthly release of “raw” (i.e., unadjusted for seasonality, holiday, and trading day) retail sales figures to those in the same calendar month of the previous year. The U.S. Census Bureau also reports seasonally adjusted sales that are compared to the previous month within the current calendar year to measure change in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Although other sources use seasonally adjusted figures, J.C. Williams Group believes that using raw figures and making comparisons to the previous year’s performance more accurately reflects the seasonality of the retail industry, and therefore, are more useful in analysis. Definitions can be found on the U.S. Census Website: www.census.gov.
