July kept with the flow of the past couple months at retail as comparable store sales grew in the low-singles for the third month running, this time slightly ahead of the pace. Same store sales grew 2.6% for the month of July, based on a preliminary tally of 48 retail-chain stores compiled by the International Council of Shopping Centers. For the year-to-date period, the ICSC estimates that average monthly comp sales growth was 2.3%, though slightly higher without Wal-Mart included. Excluding Wal-Mart, same-store sales grew 3.3% for the month and 3.4% for the YTD period. (Click here to view the full comps chart.)
After a sluggish June, the Lux retailers posted low-teens same-store sales growth for July, leading all retail channels. The ICSC data showed Teen retailers to have comped down in the mid-singles for the month.
According to retail point-of-sale data compiled by SportScanINFO, the sporting goods market enjoyed as good or better sales as many of the other apparel and footwear industries.
Sport Footwear had a strong month with dollars increasing in the low-double-digits on a low-singles improvement in average selling price. Sales were driven by Lifestyle/Fashion Athletic product, as well as Canvas and Skate. Skate was up in the strong-teens for the quarter, but a downturn in sales of Heelys product offset that growth.
Apparel sales benefited from the ever-creeping earlier start to the fall sports season, which drove sales of Compression Performance product. The category continued to grow, but suffered from a decrease in average selling price as more retailers looked to move more product from more manufacturers. Sweats/Fleece, perhaps in a sign of a BTS trend, sold very well, with a healthy jump in average selling price.
Looking forward to August sales results, the ICSC is calling for comp-store sales to increase 2.0% to 2.5%, more or less on trend with the past three months and the YTD.
DSW Inc. reported net sales for the second quarter increased 16% to $348.7 million from $301.3 million for the year-ago period. Same-store sales increased 5.9% for the quarter, on top of an increase of 2.2% last year. DSW said second quarter sales were driven by “significant promotional activity aimed at clearing seasonal merchandise,” but warned the sales negatively impacted gross margin.
Shoe Carnival, Inc. reported sales increased 5.4% to $154.8 million for the fiscal second quarter, compared to sales of $146.9 million for the year-ago period. Comparable store sales decreased 7.1% for the second quarter. SCVL opened six stores during the second quarter of fiscal 2007.
Pacific Sunwear of California, Inc. reported that total sales for the month of July were $111.5 million, a decrease of 2.8% from total sales of $114.7 million during the same month last year. Total company same-store sales decreased 4.6% for the month of July. By concept, PacSun same-store sales decreased 3.1% and demo same-store sales decreased 20.6% compared to the same four-week period last year, all coming after low-double-digit negative comps last year.
PSUN saw second quarter sales increase 5.4% to $342.2 million from $324.5 million for the same period last year. Total company same-store sales increased 1.8% in Q2. By concept, PacSun same-store sales increased 3.0% and demo same-store sales decreased 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year.
In July, on a geographic basis, comps were weakest in Florida, Texas, the desert Southwest and California. The company attributed the softness in Florida and Texas to a later start to BTS. Comps were strongest in the Northwest, Midwest and New England.
For PacSun. the momentum continued with the girls apparel business, which had comps up low-teens driven by the new juniors full knit denim line. Guys apparel comps for the month were up slightly driven by tops. The footwear business was down low-20s with the sneaker business said to be the primary drag for both guys and girls. Total accessories were down high-teens with girls down low-teens and guys down mid-20s. At demo, same-store sales for the month were down low-20s for both guys and girls.
For the month, total PSUN transactions comped up in low-single-digits. The average unit retail was up low-single-digits, the average item sold per transaction was down high-single-digits and the average transaction value per comp store was down mid-single-digits.
Given the “much weaker than expected sales and gross margin” in fiscal July, PSUN expects GAAP earnings to be a loss of 16 cents to 17 cents per diluted share which includes a charge of approximately 14 cents attributed to the closing of 74 demo stores and 9 cents per diluted share of impairment and inventory reserve charges related to its One Thousand Steps retail concept. Excluding these charges, PSUN expects non-GAAP diluted EPS between 6 cents and 7 cents for the year.
Zumiez Inc., who is not included in the ICSC data, recorded a July sales jump of 42.4% to $28.2 million from $19.8 million for the same month last year. The company's comparable store sales increased 9.7% for the four-week period, on top of an 8.4% improvement in the year-ago period.
The Buckle, Inc. saw July net sales jump 30.3% to $44.3 million from net sales of $34.0 million last year. Comparable store net sales increased 7.6%, mirroring a
7.6% decrease in same-store sales for the year-ago month. Net sales for the second quarter increased 21.3% to $124.3 million from $102.4 million for the same period last year. Comparable store net sales for the second quarter increased 10.1% after declining 5.7% for the year-ago period.
Though the year has had factors seeming to jump up in an attempt to bring the market down, sales have been up fairly consistently month-to-month. The housing and credit worries that have many analysts worried might well turn out to be an S&L -type moment, but the market always seems to have a way of bouncing back. Perhaps the sales that accelerated through Q2, will continue to grow at an ever growing pace.
