March has never had that dubious distinction of being the cruelest month, but for retailers, last month resembled jambalaya–a little this, a little that, with some gumbo thrown in for good measure.
Major retail chains Thursday reported same-store sales that ranged from 12 percent above last year’s March for Troy, Mich.-based Kmart Corp. to 12 percent below for beleaguered Venture Stores Inc. of St. Louis.
Although Sears, Roebuck and Co. of Hoffman Estates said sales of lawn, garden and patio equipment were strong, its U.S. same-store sales edged up only 1 percent from March 1996 levels. The meager increase is highly unusual for Sears, which has been a leader in sales gains for months.
Composite indexes for the industry increased between 4.5 and 5 percent, but only a few stores fell in that range.
Stores with declines or less-than-expected increases cited several reasons: Easter falling in March and eliminating a day of shopping; customers still paying off debt, including holiday spending and heavy buying of sale merchandise in January; and a lack of clearance merchandise in March, which customers had come to expect.
Sales numbers in March and April can be skewed, depending on which month Easter falls in, and retailers and analysts play down the results of just one of those months. They prefer teaming results of the two months before judging whether consumers were reining in their spending or boosting it.
Results are based on same-store sales because they are the most accurate barometer of retailers’ gains; they include only sales of stores open a year or more, thus eliminating the effects of store openings and closings.
Two Wisconsin-based retail chains posted good sales results for last month. Kohl’s Corp. of Menomonee Falls reported a rousing increase of 11.5 percent in same-store sales, while Milwaukee-based Carson Pirie Scott & Co. saw a healthy rise of 7 percent.
Both companies are big on clothes; Kohl’s concentrates on apparel and totally bailed out of electronics last year. Chief executives of both chains indicated that they were expecially please with same-store sales of new, spring merchandise in all categories.
But two clothing chains did not fare so well. Gap Inc. of San Francisco reported a 3.2 percent sales decline, and Limited Inc., based in Cincinnati, posted a 6 percent falloff. Gap, however, was up against a 13 percent increase in March 1996.
In addition to Kmart, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville, Ark., fared well last month with a 7.2 percent increase. Several other regional discount stores showed positive increases, as well.
Typifying the surprise elements of March, Saks Holdings Inc. of New York, parent of Saks Fifth Avenue stores, said sales rose only 1.5 percent, following stronger results in the last several months. But rival Neiman Marcus Group Inc. stores showed up Saks by posting an 8.7 percent increase. That’s the jambalaya element.
On the local front, sales at Marshall Field’s along with Dayton’s and Hudson’s–all in Minneapolis-based Dayton Hudson Corp.’s department-store division–fell 4.7 percent.
That division’s results, described by Chairman and chief executive Bob Ulrich as “below expectations,” leveled the corporation’s same-store results to an increase of 1.9 percent.
Meanwhile, the Target division’s sales climbed 3.5 percent, and the once-floundering Mervyn’s division was flat with last year.
