Department Stores Miss Out on Solid Holiday Start

Evan Clark
·2 min read

Consumers showed a little more pep than expected at the start of the holiday season — but department stores missed out on the early good cheer, according to the Census Bureau’s November sales report.

Department store sales slid 5.2 percent last month compared with a year earlier — another sign of pressure for the beleaguered sector, where Macy’s Inc. is said to have received a low-ball buyout offer from real estate investors.

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Apparel and accessories specialty stores fared better, with a 1.3 percent gain, although that still lagged the industry overall.

Retail and food service sales rose 4.1 — led by a 12 percent increase at electronics and appliance stores, an 11.3 percent gain at food service and drinking places, a 10.6 percent rise for non-store retailers and a 10.9 percent increase at health and personal care stores.

Seasonally adjusted sales for the whole market inched up 0.3 percent from October — a much stronger result than the 0.2 percent decline economists projected, according to FactSet.

Stephen Stanley, chief U.S. economist at Santander, said: “The anecdotal commentary from the industry indicated that November was highly promotional, as stores got back to the pre-COVID[-19] norm of offering substantial discounts to attract Christmas shoppers.

“Today’s data suggests that the strategy worked, drawing in solid consumer interest, again consistent with the anecdotal news after the Black Friday weekend,” Stanley said. “A solid November does not guarantee a successful Christmas retail season, but it certainly beats the alternative.”

The Thanksgiving rush showed some better-than-expected business for retailers and the traditional December lull — the slow period between Cyber Monday and the Christmas crunch time — hasn’t been as bad as some feared.

Overall, experts are projecting a 2 to 4 percent holiday gain this year, which has the industry more or less just keeping pace with inflation of 3.1 percent.

Now the focus is on a strong finish.

A survey by National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics projected that nearly 142 million consumers plan to shop on Dec. 23, the last Saturday before Christmas or, as the retailers hope, Super Saturday.

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