ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 7, 1997 TAG: 9702070042
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHICAGO
SOURCE: Bloomberg Business News
U.S. retailers said sales jumped in January because of after-Christmas clearance sales and severe blizzards that left shoppers at home last year.
Sales at stores open at least one year rose 7.6 percent from January 1996, according to an index compiled by Bloomberg Business News. The gain is the largest since March 1994.
Still, January is considered one of the least important months for retailers because most of the sales increases come after prices are slashed to clear goods that didn't sell during Christmas. January accounts for about half the sales volume of the average month.
``Often what you find is that those companies that show the best January numbers are those that had difficulties during the holiday season,'' said Joseph Ronning, an analyst at Brown Brothers Harriman.
Limited Inc., for example, had a 1 percent drop in same-store sales in December. And Hills Stores Co. said it marked down a lot of inventory that didn't sell during the holidays, pushing up sales 11 percent.
Clothing retailers had among the highest gains as stores marked down prices on winter apparel. The only segment of the industry that continued to show poor sales was consumer electronics.
Many of the increases were also bolstered by slim gains in 1996, which were blamed on a crippling snowstorm on the East Coast. Several national retail chains, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., had to shutter stores for several days last January 1996 after the storm.
``It's not really fair to say things are good,'' said Peter Schaeffer, an analyst at Dillon Read & Co. ``What we're really saying is last year's January was terrible.''
The three major discount chains also had strong increases. In addition to Wal-Mart's increase of 6.6 percent, Kmart's sales rose 8 percent and Dayton Hudson's Target had a 6.7 percent gain.
Some retailers whose holiday sales were strong continued to have good increases. Sears, Roebuck and Co., which has been a standout the past year, had a 5.8 percent increase for the month, and Pier 1 Imports Inc.'s sales rose 20 percent.
Here are January results reported by major chains operating stores in Western Virginia. The monthly sales are followed by the percentage of change from January 1996 results, and by the change in same-store sales. The latter is a measure of stores that have operated for at least one year and 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 $20 million, down 5.2 percent from January 1996, same-store sales up 6.6 percent.
* Charming Shoppes, parent of Fashion Bug and Fashion Bug Plus stores: $44.2 million, down 12.6 percent, down 4 percent.
* Circuit City: $630.2 million, up 7 percent, down 11 percent.
* Family Dollar Stores: $120.8 million, up 30.7 percent, up 23.3 percent.
* The Gap: $288 million, up 21 percent, up 8 percent.
* Heilig-Meyers: $122.9 million, up 89.9 percent, up 6 percent.
* Hills Department Stores: $82.4 million, up 12.4 percent, up 11.4 percent.
* J.C. Penney Co. Inc.: $1.70 billion, up 67.4 percent, up 13 percent.
* Kmart: $1.95 billion, up 5.4 percent, up 7.2 percent.
* Lechters: $26.7 million, down 18.1 percent, up 3 percent.
* The Limited Inc.: $510.9 million, up 25 percent, up 17 percent.
* Lowe's Cos.: $524 million, up 29 percent, up 13 percent.
* May Department Stores Co., parent of Hecht's: $578.4 million, up 12.8 percent, up 6.7 percent.
* S&K Famous Brands: $8.9 million, up 19 percent, up 20 percent.
* Sears, Roebuck and Co.: $1.69 billion, up 12.1 percent, up 5.8 percent.
* TJX Cos., parent of T.J. Maxx: $352 million, up 8 percent, up 9 percent.
* Wal-Mart Stores: $7.02 billion, up 14.9 percent, up 6.6 percent.
* Woolworth Corp.: $461 million, up 1.4 percent, up 2.5 percent.
Staff writer Megan Schnabel contributed to this report.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by AP.by CNB