Clothes Call

An unseasonably warm February seems to have sparked an apparel buying spree in February. Kohl's, JC Penney, Wal-Mart and Target spearheaded a 5.6 percent jump in overall same-store sales, according to the monthly report from the Goldman, Sachs retail composite index.

The February jump followed a January uptick of 3.4 percent. What was notable about February's gain was the emphasis on apparel rather than on consumer electronics, automobiles and hard goods that had characterized other, smaller retail increases in November and December 2001 and January 2002.

Partly because of retail sales hikes, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan was encouraged to say that the recession is over and “recovery is already under way.”

Kohl's continued its strong performance with a 14.4 percent same-store sales gain for the four weeks ending March 2, 2002, and a 31.9 percent overall gain from a year ago. Penney's posted a 12.5 percent same-store gain. Wal-Mart (+10.3 percent), Target (+8.5 percent) and TJX (+7 percent) also had strong months.

Not everyone participated in the upsurge, however. The Gap (-17 percent) continued to spiral downward. Sears'sales fell 3.1 percent. Federated Department Stores lost 2.8 percent, though the company insisted that was better than projected. And sales for Saks Inc. tumbled 2.6 percent.