‘It is darkest before the dawn’ seems to be an appropriate reminder as November proved to be an especially pitiable month at retail. Though several retailers claimed success following Black Friday, those gains were not enough to offset an otherwise dismal month.

 

For October, only six retailers tracked in the monthly index posted comparable store sales gains over the year-ago month. In November, only five managed that feat (see page 5), with Aeropostale falling into the red.


Even more worrying is the extent of the negative comps. Only seven of the 22 retailers to post monthly same-store sales declines managed to comp down less than 10.0%.  That means less than half of the retailers tracked by Sports Executive Weekly managed to post a comp sales result that was better than negative double-digits.  As such, it should come as no surprise that a preliminary tally of 37 retail chain stores conducted by the International Council of Shopping Centers found monthly comps declined by 2.7% on a consolidated basis, the weakest performance in over 25 years.


Excluding Wal-Mart from the November tally, industry sales tumbled by a record 7.7%, the worst result since the ex-WMT metric was first calculated. In November, every retail segment tracked posted a decline: apparel-specialty was off 10.4% with teen retailers down 14.8%; department stores were down 13.3% with the luxury sub-segment declining by 10.5%; sales at discounters were off by 1.0%; and wholesale club sales fell by 2.4%. That discounters and wholesale clubs should decline the least shows the emphasis the consumer is placing on stretching every dollar to its maximum with a focus on deals and value.


Based on retail point-of-sale data compiled by SportScanINFO, Sport Softgoods sales declined in the low-teens in dollars for the month and fell in the high-teens in units.  A high-single-digits decline in Sport Footwear and a low-singles declined in Sport Apparel were exacerbated by a strong double-digits drop in sales of Licensed Softgoods.  Based on historical data, the week following the Black Friday weekend is a stronger athletic footwear week than the week of Thanksgiving.                                                                  

 

That post Thanksgiving week falls into December this year.
Concurring with the reported comps results, only the value channels saw sales growth for the month according to the SportScanINFO sales data. Sales at family footwear increased in the mid-singles for the month, while discount/mass retailers reported a collective low-teens dollar sales increase. Family footwear benefited from a mid-singles rise in Sport Footwear sales as consumers sought deals, with Skate especially strong. Discount/mass, on the other hand, used a mid-teens Sport Apparel gain to drive growth.


Meanwhile, the sport retailer sector was down in the high-single-digits for the month.  The segment saw tough sales in Sport Footwear at full-line sporting goods and the mall, but sales grew nicely at sport specialty and for the Internet/catalog business.