Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 6, 1994 TAG: 9405060095
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From staff and wire reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Easter fell in early April, pushing most holiday-related sales forward into March.
Analysts had divided opinions on the strength of chain-store sales reported Thursday.
"They're pretty weak, except for Sears," said David Kelly, senior economist at Lehman Bros. Global Economics in Boston.
But he cautioned against overstating the weakness. Besides an earlier Easter, many stores had tough comparisons with last year's April, he said.
Bad weather in March 1993 - including a so-called "storm of the century" that swept the East Coast in mid-March - caused some sales to shift to April that year.
"But, having said that, the pace of spending growth in April clearly has slowed," Kelly said. Taking into account recent data from the Johnson Redbook Service, which reported a 0.2 percent decline in April sales compared with March, and Wednesday's report of sluggish U.S. April car sales, "you have to say that the consumer is slowing down a little bit," he said.
Part of that may be a natural reaction to several quarters of strong consumer spending growth, he said.
Some of the weakness also may stem from slow income growth, which makes it difficult to maintain a strong spending pace, he said. To some extent, April sales were seen as a letdown after March's outstanding gains.
Sears Merchandise Group's strong 12.3 percent gain in same-store or comparable-store sales - a measure of stores operating at least one full year - helped boost the overall picture, along with a better-than-expected sales pace at some of the smaller regional chains, he said.
Sears, which had sales of $2.44 billion, owes much of its strength to its continuing internal improvements and new marketing campaign, which has had particular success with its emphasis on "the softer side of Sears."
Here are the April sales reports by major retail chains operating stores in Western Virginia:
The Bombay Co. reported sales of 18.5 million, up 28 percent for all stores and 13 percent for comparable stores.
Cato Co. sales were 30.9 million, flat overall but a 12 percent decrease for comparable stores.
Charming Shoppes, which owns Fashion Bug stores, saw same-store sales drop 5 percent but overall sales increase 3 percent to $100.3 million.
The Dress Barn Inc. reported sales of $44.2 million, up 12 percent overall. Comparable-store sales were flat.
Family Dollar stores had sales of $122.3 million, up 14.9 percent at all stores, 4 percent at comparable stores.
Hills Stores Co. had an increase of 8.7 percent in sales, to $365.6 million, but same-store sales were down 1.5 percent and total sales dropped 2.6 percent.
Kmart Corp. reported a sales increase of 2.9 percent, to $2.6 billion, excluding sales of the discontinued PACE Membership Warehouse and the divested PayLess Drug Store operations. Kmart also owns Waldenbooks and OfficeMax. Same-store sales dropped 1.6 percent.
The Limited Inc. reported monthly sales of $459 million, down 3 percent. Same-store sales were off 8 percent.
May Department Stores Co., which owns Hecht's, had sales of $821.4 million, a 3.4 percent increase. Department store sales totaled $652.4 million, up 5.1 percent overall and 2.5 percent in comparable stores, and Payless Shoesource sales were $169.0 million, a decrease of 2.5 overall and 8.7 percent at comparable stores.
J.C. Penney Co. sales were $1.01 billion in April, down 1.8 percent overall and 2.1 percent at comparable stores.
Woolworth Corp. saw comparable-store sales declined 8.9 percent, to $552 million. Overall sales decreased 8.9 percent.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. had sales of $6.3 billion, an increase of 24 percent for all stores and 11 percent at comparable stores. Sam's Clubs had sales of $15 billion, up 37 percent for the month but down 2 percent at comparable stores.
by CNB