The retail results for January and the retail fourth quarter apparently lived up to low expectations as Wall Street shrugged off both the negative comp store sales results and the loss of more than 625,000 jobs during the month. While the sporting goods industry stock index fell short of the gains seen in the S&P 500 index, the specialty retail index posted a double-digit increase in value for the week. Departments stores also rose for the week.
On the comparable store sales front, The Buckle continued its impressive run and Hot Topic benefited from the vampire fad driven by the Twilight series, but most others suffered their way through the last month of the retail fiscal year.
January chain store sales extended their declining streak to four consecutive months, based on a preliminary tally of 36 retail-chain stores compiled by the International Council of Shopping Centers. The ICSC reported that retail industry comparable-store sales for the four-week fiscal month of January posted a 1.6% year-over-year decline. Total net sales for the 36 chains tracked by ICSC declined 0.2% for the month. Excluding the 1.5% gain posted by Wal-Mart, consolidated comps would have declined 4.8% for the month, according to the ICSC report.
According to the ICSC tally, only discount stores, drug stores and wholesale clubs (excluding fuel sales) managed to post a consolidated comparable store sales increase for the month. Apparel chain stores saw comps drop 14.0% in January, but the 17.7% decline at Luxury Dept. Stores took the dubious honor of biggest decliner for the month.
Retail point-of-sale data compiled by SportScanINFO suggests that the Sport Softgoods market faired slightly worse than the market as a whole. Sales when measured in dollars decreased just under 2.0% for fiscal January, though average selling prices improved slightly as unit sales decline approximately 3.3% for the month. A large factor in the Sports Softgoods market being outperformed by the overall were Licensed Softgoods. Licensed Softgoods sales declined in the mid-teens for the month due to particular softness at both mall specialty and mid-tier department stores. Excluding the effects of Licensed Softgoods, Sport Softgoods sales were just below flat for the month.
Not only did the mid-tier department store channel see declines in Licensed Softgoods, it posted declines in Sport Footwear and Sport Apparel as well. Sport Footwear sales in the channel declined mid-singles for the month, while Sport Apparel sales dropped high-teens. Excluding the mid-tier department channel, overall Sport Softgoods sales increased approximately 1.2% for the month when measured in dollars with relatively flat average selling prices.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, the family footwear channel posted a low-teens jump in Sport Softgoods sales with a corresponding low-singles rise in average selling prices. This channel benefited from several trends in the month, including consumers seeking value for their dollar and a complete lack of dependence on Licensed Softgoods for generating sales.
The full line sporting goods channel had a good month, with sales increasing mid-singles in dollars and low-singles in units. Sport Footwear sales actually declined low-singles in the channel for January, but were more than offset by a high-singles improvement in Sport Apparel and a mid-singles rise in Licensed Softgoods sales.
Looking ahead to February, ICSC Research anticipates industry sales will decline by between 1% and 2% on a comparable-store basis.
