Major Retailers Report Modest Same-Store Sales Gai

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Major Retailers Report Modest Same-Store Sales Gai
New York, NY, December 2--Major retailers reported modest gains in November sales on Thursday. The results set a lackluster tone for the key holiday shopping season, which many Wall Street analysts anticipate will be solid, but not stellar this year. Sales at discounts and stores servicing lower-income shoppers mostly lagged, with core working- and middle-class customers tending to feel the pinch of higher gasoline and heating oil costs more intensely. Wal-Mart posted a tepid 0.7-percent rise in November sales at stores open at least a year, or same-store sales, citing, in part, lackluster sales on Black Friday, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday. Wal-Mart's result was in line with the forecast it gave on Saturday, when it cut its outlook from its earlier prediction of 2 percent to 4 percent growth, saying its strategy of eschewing deep discounts during the first big holiday shopping weekend backfired. Looking ahead, Wal-Mart said its December U.S. same-store sales will rise between 1 percent and 3 percent. Target Corp. said its same-store sales for the month rose 3.2 percent. Sears said it same-store sales rose 2.8 percent in November, surpassing analysts' expectations for a decline of 0.3 percent. Specialty and discount retailer ShopKo posted a 4.8-percent drop in same-store sales. Warehouse club chain Costco reported a 6 percent gain, which analysts said came mainly on sales of gasoline. BJ's Wholesale Club, however, posted a surprisingly weak 1.8-percent gain. Upscale department store Nordstrom said its November same-store sales ticked up 3.1 percent. Federated Department Stores reported its monthly same-store sales fell 1.4 percent. May Department Stores said its same-store sales dropped 7.7 percent. J.C. Penney was one of the stand-outs among department stores, posting a 12-percent gain in November same-store sales. Shoppers spent $22.8 billion the weekend after Thanksgiving, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation, racking up about 10 percent of what the group estimates will be about $220 billion in total 2004 holiday sales. Most Wall Street analysts expect holiday retail sales to range between 3 percent and 5 percent -- slower than last year's 5.1 percent growth.