Retail Sales Helped by Unseasonably Warm Weather in January

Mild weather helped big retailers ring up good sales in January, and analysts said the gains reported today might have been larger if the stores had more merchandise to sell.

However, analysts noted that last month’s gains by the nation’s largest general retailers occurred during a month that typically is the least important on the industry’s calendar.

Moreover, several store executives and analysts explained that at least part of the sales increase came in comparison with a relatively weak January, 1988.

“Generally speaking, the sales have come in very good for the month--better, I think, than anyone would have expected,” observed Jeffrey Edelman of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. in New York.

But Edelman also said, “January is such an insignificant month. January’s a cleanup month after Christmas. If you had a couple of good days, that makes a big difference.”

Unseasonably warm weather over much of the country in January probably encouraged shoppers and added to sales volumes. During some years past, severe winter conditions have kept consumers from venturing out to stores.

Monroe Greenstein of the investment firm Bear Stearns said the tight inventories probably depressed January sales. One leading department store chain informed him that it had to scramble to locate merchandise to stock stores during January.

“I believe if there was more inventory, sales would have been better,” Greenstein said.

Goods were sharply depleted during December, when business was even better than retailers had expected. Also, stores didn’t have much left over after Christmas because they already had been holding inventories down to avoid having to slash prices to move unsold merchandise later.

Retailers adopted the strategy after two years of sluggish sales in which consumers devoted more of their discretionary income to necessities and services and tried to reduce their high debt levels. Analysts and economists expect this trend to continue this year.