June Same-Store Sales Down

June Same-Store Sales Down
July 10, 2009

Retail same-store sales declined 4.7 percent in June for 32 retailers reporting results (excluding Wal-Mart), according to Retail Forward’s June ShopperScape Survey. Weakening sales were most evident among department stores and apparel and accessories stores, which made up 25 of the 32 retailers surveyed, while mass and drugstore retailers saw less of a decline. The drop in sales-weighted, same-store sales is worse than the 4.2 percent seasonally adjusted decline in May, and is a significant contrast to the 2.2 percent growth for the same composite measure (excluding Wal-Mart) in June 2008. With Wal-Mart included in the calculations, same-store sales grew 4.5 percent in June 2008. The responses in the June survey may be a reflection of shoppers’ negative assessments of their own financial situations, with 50 percent of shoppers planning to spend less in the coming month, and 45 percent of households planning to modify their shopping habits. “Shoppers appear to be divided about whether they need to make more changes in their shopping habits. And that seems to be contributing to the month-to-month ups and downs in the retail sales numbers,” said Frank Badillo, senior economist at Retail Forward. The research firm surveyed a sample of 4,000 U.S. primary household shoppers in the monthly online study.