US retail sales rise for first time in more than a year
Friday October 09 2009
US retail sales rose for the first time in 13 months as September results at clothiers American Eagle Outfitters Inc and Kohl's Corp topped analysts' estimates and discounts drew shoppers back to stores.
Sales at US chains open at least a year climbed 1.1pc last month, according to Swampscott, Massachusetts-based Retail Metrics Inc. A total 70pc of retailers reported sales results that exceeded the average of estimates compiled by Retail Metrics, said Ken Perkins, president of the researcher.
While shoppers have shifted spending away from big-ticket items, retailers have had a year to change their product assortments and offer lower prices, according to Richard Hastings, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based consumer strategist for Global Hunter Securities LLC.
"The consumer has less spending capacity but the industry's learning ability is very strong," Mr Hastings said. "The consumer is less frightened than it was one year ago."
Same-store sales at American Eagle were unchanged in September, compared with the 4.4pc drop that had been predicted by the analysts surveyed by Retail Metrics.
Comparable sales at Kohl's, the fourth-largest US department-store chain, rose 5.5pc, beating a 0.6pc projected decline.
Comparisons
Retailers faced easier year-over-year comparisons starting last month, according to Perkins. Sales in September 2008 dropped 0.1pc, probably attributable in part to the collapse of Lehman Brothers on September 15, after five months of gains, according to Mr Perkins.
A later Labour Day bank holiday weekend pushed more back-to-school sales to September from August, probably luring more shoppers into stores early in the month to take advantage of holiday deals, according to Christine Chen, an analyst at Needham & Co in San Francisco.
Many US schools open the week after Labour Day, which fell on September 7 this year, compared with September 1 in 2008. "We expect teens will succumb to peer pressure now that school has started, which could lead to incremental sales in October as they shop for the hottest trends after seeing what others are wearing," Ms Chen said earlier this week.
US holiday sales for the last two months of the year will probably fall 1pc to $437.6bn (€296bn) from the same period in 2008, the National Retail Federation forecast on Tuesday.
Irish Independent
