News

March 07, 2010
RETAIL ROUNDUP: TARGET, MACY'S, NORDSTROM AMONG CHAINS POSTING FEBRUARY SALES INCREASES

Triangle Business Journal

Most of the biggest national retailers in the Triangle – including Target, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Nordstrom and J.C. Penney, to name just a few – on Thursday posted same-store sales gains for February.

The month was one of the strongest for the industry in the past year.

Here’s a roundup of February retailer sales results as reported by the Triangle Business Journals' sister papers in the companies’ headquarters cities. 

• Target Corp.’s same-store sales rose 2.4 percent in February, beating both the retailer’s and analysts’ expectations. Gregg Steinhafel, Minneapolis-based Target’s chairman, CEO and president, attributed the increase to the “relevance of our strategy and assortment,” as well as a “slowly recovering” economy.

Analysts had projected Target’s same-store sales would rise 1 percent in February, while the company had projected flat results, according to the Associated Press.

Net sales for at all stores, meanwhile, rose 6 percent to $4.6 million compared to the same period last year. In February 2009, the company’s sales were down 4.1 percent compared to the same period in 2008. (Click here for more.)

• Macy’s Inc. managed to increase its sales last month, despite a series of snowstorms in the Midwest and East, the retailer said.

Cincinnati- and New York-based Macy’s reported total sales of $1.64 billion for the four-week period, up 4 percent from $1.58 billion in February 2009. Sales grew 3.4 percent in January.

Same-store sales rose 3.7 percent year over year, compared to 3.4 percent the month before. Online sales, which are included in the same-store figures, jumped 38 percent. (Click here for more.)

• Kohl’s Corp. same-store sales in February rose 3.7 percent compared with the same period a year ago. Analysts had predicted a same-store sales increase of 4.1 percent, according to a survey by FactSet Research.

Total sales for the four-week period ending Feb. 27 increased 7.8 percent to $1.08 billion from $1.01 billion, the Menomonee Falls, Wis.-based department store chain said. (Click here for more.)

• Nordstrom Inc. same-store sales jumped 10.3 percent last month compared with a year earlier.

The Seattle retailer (NYSE: JWN) said total retail sales increased 14.5 percent to $539 million from $471 million in February 2009. (Click here for more.)

• American Eagle Outfitters Inc. reported that total sales increased last month, rising 6 percent from the year-ago period. Sales for the period ended Feb. 27 rose to $188 million, compared with $177 million last February.

Same-store sales were also up last month for the Pittsburgh-based teen clothing retailer, adding 6 percent from the same period last year. (Click here for more.)

• J.C. Penney Co.'s same-store sales — or sales at stores open for 12 months or more — grew 1.2 percent in the four-week period ending Feb. 27, the company said Thursday.>

J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) added that total company sales increased 1.5 percent for the same period ended Feb. 27.

Comparatively, same-store sales in February 2009 fell 8.8 percent.

In February, Penney’s experienced an upswing in spring merchandise offerings. Meanwhile, children’s was the top-performing merchandising category.