The majority of apparel retailers missed same-store sales expectations for July due to sluggish consumer traffic driven by macro-economic trends and a late start to the back-to-school selling season.
Teen retailers fared the worst, missing expectations that were already lowered in anticipation of soft sales for the month. American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch and Aeropostale all did much worse than consensus estimates, posting declines of 6, 4 and 11.9 percent, respectively.
There were some bright spots from more than one segment last month, however. Nordstrom’s, Saks, J.C. Penney, Target and the warehouse clubs all turned in solid numbers. Nordstrom, Saks and J.C. Penney posted comp gains of 9.4, 14.9 and 10.8, respectively. Target reported a 6.1 percent increase, and Wal-Mart’s discount stores climbed 1.3 percent.
As tracked by WWD, mass merchants posted an average gain of 2.5 percent. The department stores increased 2.3 percent. The specialty sector fell 2 percent.
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For complete coverage, see Friday’s WWD.