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January: Better Than Expected

NEW YORK-The ICSC reports that retailers did surprisingly well overall last month, with luxury retailers really cleaning up.

By Dees Stribling | Updated on February 03, 2005

NEW YORK-Buyers were out in some force in January, many with gift cards in hand, according to the International Council ofShopping Centers’ tally of 72 chain stores, which represented $45.9 billion in comparable-store sales, compared with $44.3 billion in the same month of the prior year, a 3.6% increase. Gift-card redemption helped spur January sales, according to the organization’s consumer surveys, though bad weather in some parts of the country hurt sales at the end of the month.

The strongest segment of the retailing market measured by ICSC continued to be luxury goods, the reigning retail champ for some time now. Luxury comp-store sales in January grew 8.6% compared with a year ago. Discounters came in with a respectable 4.4% comp-store increase, but the market segment catering to teens, a notoriously fickle group, posted a more modest 2.3% increase over January 2004.

“Consumers came out redeeming their gift cards and taking advantage of clearance sales, giving retailers a better than expected sales month,” said Micheal Niemira, chief economist and director of research for the association. “Despite the fact that January is typically a clearance month, consumers are still in a positive spending mood.” For February, ICSC expects same-store sales to increase by 3% compared with 2004.

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