With Halloween just days away, retailers would normally be gearing up for heavy sales traffic, but the threat of Hurricane Sandy may hurt retail revenue, according to the Washington Business Journal. The storm has already caused gusting winds on the edges of New England, and is expected to strike the East Coast heavily tomorrow.
Several flagships in New York, including Bergdorf Goodman, Macy’s Herald Square and Saks Fifth Avenue, have covered up store windows in anticipation of the storm’s affects.
Businessweek reports an upswing in sales at home improvement and off-price chains before the storm, but predicted that it would be counterbalanced by decreased sales at specialty-apparel chains. A Citigroup analyst predicted a 3 percent same-store sales drop in November for affected areas, according to Businessweek.