Mixed May Messages

Five retailers that produce a significant indicator of how business is trending weighed in with their monthly sales results, and the message was mixed. While Wal-Mart and Target showed same-store gains for May, business at Kmart, J.C.Penney and Sears was down from a year ago.

Wal-Mart Stores (Bentonville, Ark.) reported a 3.8 percent same-store sales increase in May for both Wal-Mart stores and Sam's Club stores (Wal-Mart stores were up 3.6 percent, Sam's Club up 4.8 percent) and an overall 4.5 percent same-store sales jump for the previous 17-week period. The retailer's net sales increased 12.5 percent during the month.

May comp-store sales for Target Corp. (Minneapolis) increased 0.9 percent from the previous May, and the company's net retail sales for the four weeks ended June 2, 2001, increased 6.9 percent. Target stores realized a total 9.2 percent sales increase and a comp-store 1.5 percent jump. Mervyn's comp-store sales were up 1.7 percent and Marshall Field's same-store sales fell 6 percent.

“Sales for the corporation were slightly below plan for the month of May,” said Bob Ulrich, chairman and ceo.

J. C. Penney Co. (Plano, Texas) announced a 1.2 percent decrease in comp-store sales for the month, though comparable drugstore sales increased 8.3 percent (including a pharmacy sales increase of 12.4 percent). Catalog sales for May decreased 14.1 percent. E-commerce sales (which are included in catalog sales) increased 28 percent, to $18 million, in May.

Sears, Roebuck (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) reported a 3.3 percent decrease in comparable domestic store revenues and a 2.8 percent decrease in total domestic store revenues for the four weeks ending June 3, 2001.

“May was another challenging month, as the slowing economy continued to affect sales and cooler weather discouraged consumers from purchasing seasonal items,” said chairman and ceo Alan Lacy. “We did, however, see a solid increase among our specialty store formats, led by strong sales increases from Sears Automotive Group and solid hardware store increases. While full-line stores sales were down, major appliances continued to be a bright spot registering solid increases.”

And Kmart Corp. (Troy, Mich.) reported a 1 percent drop in same-store sales for the month. But same-store sales gained 1 percent for the 17 weeks ending May 30, 2001.

“We reported sales slightly less than plan despite major disruptions in our operations caused by resetting 20 percent of our entire store base, reducing our reliance on advertising and experiencing significantly unfavorable weather conditions across the country, which adversely effected our apparel and seasonal sales,” said chairman and ceo Chuck Conaway. “We continue to see strong gains in our frequency businesses, the drug and food categories. Over the next two quarters, we are aggressively pursuing resetting every store to drive higher frequency.”