Retail sales rise 5.8%, but cold weather and payroll taxes sting
Shoppers trod carefully in January, lured into stores by retailers dangling post-holiday clearance deals but spending sparingly to balance out higher payroll taxes and lingering economic uncertainty.
Same-store sales at major retailers such as Nordstrom, Gap and Costco reported a 5.8% upswing last month from January 2012, handily beating earlier estimates of a 3.5% boost.
The data, from Thomson Reuters, features a roundup of 18 retailers sans drug stores such as Walgreens and Rite Aid. Same-store sales account for revenue at retail locations operating for at least a year, stripping out the fluctuations of recent openings and closings.
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Target Corp. showed a 3.1% swell as “guests responded to clearance prices on holiday inventory,” said Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel in a statement. Analysts had anticipated a 1.7% increase.
“Our guests continue to shop with discipline in the face of a slow economic recovery and new pressures, including recent payroll tax increases,” he said.
Consumer confidence slid in January to its lowest level since November 2011 amid increasing pessimism over business conditions, according to the Conference Board last week.
Kohl’s Corp. said that its efforts to clear seasonal merchandise and a 59% surge in e-commerce sales last month helped bring its same-store sales up 13.3%.
Macy’s Inc. was so heartened by its “outstanding” 11.7% advance in January that it raised its earnings forecast for its fourth fiscal quarter, which it will report on Feb. 26.
The retailer, which also owns the Bloomingdale’s brand, said its online sales boomed 48.9% last month. The company now predicts fourth-quarter earnings per share of $1.94 to $1.99, up from its earlier projection of $1.91 to $1.96 per share.
Thomson Reuters’ figures don’t include sales data from behemoths such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Best Buy Co. Both Macy’s and Target have said they will stop reporting monthly numbers after January.
Separately from the Thomson Reuters report, Anthropologie and Free People owner Urban Outfitters Inc. said comparable sales from stores were flat for its fourth quarter ended Jan. 31. Without consumer returns -- likely from unwanted gifts -- the figure would have risen several percentage points, the company said.
Retail analyst Ken Perkins, who puts out another sales report through Retail Metrics Inc., said shopper traffic slowed in the final 10 days of the month as holiday sales waned and temperatures stayed frigid.
“Retailers began to transition floor sets to early spring merchandise, which got off to a slow start in part due to cool weather across the country,” he wrote in an email.
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