February Retail Sales Drop as Buyers Remain Wary

Consumers preoccupied with the Persian Gulf War and wounded by the recession kept spending tight in February, contributing to a broad decline in sales for many of the nation’s leading retailers.

The monthly results reported Thursday by major stores also provided some evidence that shoppers weren’t getting looser with their money even as the war wound down with decisive American victories toward the end of the month.

Most companies reported declines in same-store sales when compared to February, 1990, levels, including the nation’s largest retailer, Sears, Roebuck & Co., as well as J. C. Penney Co. and Dayton Hudson Corp.

Experts believe that sales from stores open at least a year--known as same-store or comparable-store sales--provide a more accurate assessment of a retailer’s performance than overall sales.

Discounters provided the lone bright spot. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., accustomed to being an industry front-runner, posted an 11% gain compared to year-ago results on a comparable-store basis.

Elsewhere, Kmart Corp.’s same-store sales advanced 6.3%.

Sears said February sales at stores open at least a year fell 4.3%, while the company’s overall sales declined 3.6%.

J. C. Penney recorded a 7% decline in same-store sales, while overall sales were down 5.3%.

Carter Hawley Hale Stores, parent of Broadway-Southern California and three other department store chains, said it decided to stop reporting its monthly sales figures as a result of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last month.

In another report reflecting the slow economy, the Federal Reserve Board reported Thursday that consumer credit fell in January at its fastest annual rate in four years, reflecting the cautious spending habits of consumers during the height of the Gulf crisis.

Consumer installment credit fell $2.4 billion in January, or at a 4% annual rate. That was the greatest decline since February, 1987, when debt contracted by 5.04%.

It was also the first time since early 1987 that there were back-to-back monthly declines.

In a third report, the Labor Department reported that new applications for unemployment benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 508,000 in the President’s Day holiday week that ended Feb. 23, up 20,000 from the week before. It was the highest weekly rate in eight years, the government said.