What Do April Showers Bring?

(This item includes monthly reported results for Nordstrom, The Limited, Intimate Brands, ShopKo, Claire's Stores, RadioShack, The Bombay Co. and American Eagle Outfitters.)

Nordstrom Inc. (Seattle) was one of a number of major retailers to report comp-store sales declines for May 2001. Nordstrom's calendar-adjusted same-store sales decline of 2.4 percent continued the downward spiral of the once-surefooted department store. (The adjustment was due to differences in the specific days of the week that comprised May 2001 compared to May 2000.) Adjusted same-store sales in full-line stores decreased in all geographic regions, but increased in the women's, junior women's and cosmetics merchandise categories. Year-to-date same-store sales were down 3.3 percent.

The Limited, Inc. (Columbus, Ohio) reported a comparable store sales decrease of 6 percent for the four weeks ended June 2, 200 (compared to the four weeks ended June 3, 2000). Net sales were down 5.2 percent. Comp-store sales decreased 3 percent for the 17 weeks ended June 2, 2001, while net sales were down 1.2 percent for the period.

The Limited's Intimate Brands subsidiary reported a comp-store sales decrease of 7 percent for the four-week period, and a 7 percent comp-store sales decrease, as well, for the 17 weeks ended June 2, 2001. Net sales were down 4.6 percent for the month and 2.3 percent for the 17-week period.

ShopKo Stores (Green Bay, Wis.), reported that comp-store sales were down 3.2 percent and net sales down 4.5 percent for the month. The retailer reported that net sales for the month, excluding sales from the ShopKo stores closed during the first quarter of 2001, increased 1.2 percent.

Claire's Stores, Inc. (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) reported that same-store sales for the four-week period ended June 2, 2001 decreased 3 percent. Total sales decreased 1 percent. The company said that comp-store sales for Claire's North America were “negative low single digits;” for Claire's Europe “negative low single digits;” for its Afterthoughts stores, “negative high single digits;” and for its Mr. Rags stores, “negative low double digits.”

“We believe we have the right merchandise and marketing campaign in Claire's Accessories North America,” said chairman and ceo Rowland Schaefer, “but we continue to see a weakness in store traffic, which resulted in the number of our average transactions decreasing 11 percent while our average transaction size increased 11 percent for the month of May.”

Not all May retail reports were written in red ink. RadioShack Corp. (Fort Worth, Texas) reported comp-store sales increases of 2 percent for the month, though total sales from its retail division, including sales to its dealer/franchise stores, were flat for May. Year-to-date comp-store sales increased 5 percent.

The Bombay Co. (Fort Worth, Texas) reported a 4 percent increase in comp-store sales for May, while total sales jumped 14 percent. For the 17-week period, same-store sales were up 3 percent and total sales increased 8 percent.

American Eagle Outfitters (Warrendale, Pa.) reported record May sales of $80.7 million, a 29.9 percent increase, resulting in a slender comp-store sales rise of 0.2 percent. U.S. same-store sales were up 6.1 percent for the 17 weeks.