Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 12, 1991 TAG: 9104120088
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Indeed, several stores in Western Virginia, as well as some national chains, reported healthy March sales.
"We're still in a recession, but not as bad as we first thought," said economist Gilbert Benz of the Swiss Bank Corp. in New York.
And Robert G. Dederick, chief economist with the Northern Trust Co. in Chicago, said "the consumer is not as much a spending recluse as it earlier appeared."
The Commerce Department said sales totaled a seasonally adjusted $149.6 billion, down from $150.8 billion a month earlier.
"March was very good for us," said to Sidney Miller, area manager for Leggett department stores in Roanoke, "but you have to remember Easter was early."
Sales this week have been slower than the prior three to four weeks, he said.
But Miller said that "I feel good about spring." He read predictions by economists this week that the recession is ending "and somehow I believe it."
Jimmie Wade, vice president-finance at Roanoke-based Heironimus, said business at the department store chain "is definitely picking up from the levels of January and early February."
The early Easter helped to some extent, Wade said, but was not entirely responsible for the sales gain during March. He believes that "people are beginning to get out and spend money."
Jane Bonomo, whose Bonomo's women's apparel stores operate in the Roanoke Valley, New River Valley and Lynchburg, said sales were up at all but one location. She declined to identify that store.
Sales at Bonomo's in March were so good "that I almost fell on my face," she said. "April is going very well."
Marc Fink said sales at the Roanoke-based Fink's chain of jewelry stores, were "fabulous" in February and flat in March. April "has started off strong, extra good."
Easter has little impact on the jewelry business, he reported, but in April "a lot of people start getting engaged." Customers are also looking for wedding and anniversary rings.
"It's been up and down" during the spring at John Norman, according to Jeffrey Wendell, owner of the apparel chain. Results varied among his stores, he said, but in general March was a good month.
The spotty record suggests to him that "we haven't gotten over what we've gotten into" with the economy, Wendell said, but he believes that customers are once again being enticed into the stores.
"Taken collectively, this is a glimmer of hope that the worst of the consumer capitulation is behind us," said Stephen S. Roach, senior economist with Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York. "That's encouraging because this has been a consumer-led recession."
Consumer spending, which represents about two-thirds of the nation's economic activity, is a key to economic recovery. Retail sales account for about half of overall consumer spending.
The February increase was the largest since sales rose 2.2 percent in October 1988 and the first since they inched up 0.3 percent in November.
Still, analysts noted the widely expected boom in consumer spending after the Gulf War failed to materialize in March despite a rebound in consumer confidence.
"Until the consumer gets some income back in his or her pocketbook, we're not going to see any sustained growth in consumption," Roach said.
Meanwhile, major retailers reported separately Thursday that business generally remained sluggish last month, although some discount firms reported strong sales.
May Department Stores Co., the St. Louis parent of Thalhimers, reported sales increased 9.2 percent to $909.3 million for the five-week period ended April 6. Sales in the similar period a year ago were $832.9 million.
Sears Merchandise Group of Chicago reported its gross revenues for the five weeks ended April 6 were $2.98 billion, 3.9 percent below $3.1 billion in the corresponding period of 1990. Comparable store sales were 3.6 percent below 1990, Sears said.
Kmart Corp. of Troy, Mich. reported a 10.3 percent sales increase in March 1991 over the same period of last year. Consolidated sales for the five-week period ended April 3 amounted to $3 billion vs. $2.7 billion a year earlier.
Woolworth Corp. of New York reported that total sales for the five weeks ended April 6 rose 8.3 percent to $900 million from $831 million in the comparable year- earlier period.
JC Penney Co. of Dallas said store and catalog sales for the five weeks ended April 6, amounted to $1.3 billion vs. $1.4 billion in the 1990 period, an 8.2 percent decline. Penney said comparable store sales were off by 9.6 percent.
Business writer Mag Poff contributed to this story.
by CNB