ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 10, 1997 TAG: 9701100026
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
For many retailers in Southwest Virginia and across the nation, December was a ho-ho-hum month for sales.
"It was not exactly what most retailers had in mind" for what is traditionally the biggest selling season of the year, said Phil VanderPloeg, general manager of Hills on Brambleton Avenue. December sales were flat compared with last year, he said.
Retailers, who released their December sales figures Thursday, were optimistic at the start of the holidays that shoppers would be eager to spend, thanks to a rebounding economy, higher levels of consumer confidence and low inflation.
But brisk buying in the first few days of the season didn't last at many stores. Steep levels of credit card debt, foul weather, and five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas contributed to the slowdown.
Some local retailers said last-minute shoppers helped them recoup a little of their holiday green.
"The season was good, especially in that last week," said Bill Webb, manager of J.C. Penney at Tanglewood Mall. He attributed the increase in traffic to the calendar shift. "That last week caught a lot of [mall tenants] by surprise."
But a strong final week in many cases wasn't enough to offset the double whammy of fewer shopping days and consumer hesitancy. Now, retailers must see if weak holiday sales will hurt their fourth-quarter and annual earnings. The Christmas season historically has accounted for up to half of merchants' sales and profits for the year.
A number of apparel chains and department stores reported sales were weak. But upscale retailers and the big discounters had higher sales gains than most, though some of those sales came through big price cuts, especially for Kmart Corp., which said margins were squeezed.
``It was a lackluster Christmas,'' said Joseph Ronning, a retail analyst at Brown Brothers Harriman. ``But it was a little better than last year's dismal performance.
``Those companies that went into the season with conservative plans fared the best. Those people that planned on a really good Christmas were hurt because they had too much merchandise and were expecting too much.''
Because of the late Thanksgiving this year, retailers used different time spans in their holiday sales reports - four or five weeks and different cutoff dates. Many of the companies that reported strong sales for the month were helped by calendar changes that pushed much of November's robust post-Thanksgiving business into December.
Salomon Brothers Inc. said that because of the significant calendar differences, the best holiday results will come from combining November and December's sales. Combined, the two months' sales rose 5 percent, Salomon said.
Here are December results reported by major chains operating stores in Western Virginia. The monthly sales are followed by the percentage of change from December 1995 results, and by the change in same-store sales. The latter is a measure of stores that have operated for at least 12 months. Same-store sales are considered a better indicator of a retailer's performance because they remove the impact of extraordinarily strong sales from opening new outlets.
American Eagle Outfitters: sales of $67.5 million, down 14.9 percent from December 1995, same-store sales down 15.8 percent.
Bombay Co.: $68.8 million, down 3 percent, up 2 percent.
Charming Shoppes, parent of Fashion Bug and Fashion Bug Plus stores: $145.8 million, down 7.9 percent, up 4 percent.
Circuit City: $1.17 billion, up 4 percent, down 13 percent.
Family Dollar Stores: $267.6 million, up 14.9 percent, unavailable.
The Gap: $896 million, up 14 percent, up 2 percent.
Heilig-Meyers: $138.4 million, up 6.1percent, down 4.7 percent.
Lechters: $94.4 million, down 1.2 percent, down 2.4 percent.
The Limited Inc.: $1.67 billion, up 7 percent, down 1percent.
Lowe's Cos.: $803 million, up 18 percent, up 4 percent.
May Department Stores Co., parent of Hecht's: $2.31 billion, up 8.8 percent, up 11percent.
S&K Famous Brands: $20 million, up 19.4 percent, up 6 percent.
TJX Cos., parent of T.J. Maxx: $892 million, up 9 percent, up 9 percent.
Woolworth Corp.: $1.96 billion, up 0.4 percent, up 0.6 percent.
- The Associated Press and Bloomberg Business News contributed to this report.
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by AP.by CNB