Fourth-Quarter Retail Presents Mixed Bag

P redictions for a bah-humbug 2001 holiday shopping season filled newspapers and airwaves in December like falling snowflakes. Retailers slashed prices, making gift-giving merrier - at least from a monetary perspective. The grim predictions continued even after the holidays as business analysts processed numbers and figures for December totals.

What could have been a holiday shopping season to warm the cockles of Ebenezer Scrooge's heart seems to have turned out to be jollier than expected for some retailers than others. Sales figures for December, the fourth quarter and for the year, released in mid-January, show the Spirit of Christmas presents was much kinder to electronics stores than those that sell higher-end apparel items.

Gizmos and gadgets that whir and chirp were high on many gift lists this season. Electronics - including audio, video games and systems and DVDs and players - were best sellers at the Best Buy Co. Inc. chain, which reported an increase in sales of 43% in December, including an increase of 6.2% for same-store sales. (Same-store sales are made in locations that have been open for at least one year and indicate the health of a retailer.) The Best Buy Company includes 1,700 retail locations in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands.

Electronics Boutique, with 935 stores in the U.S., Europe and Asia, also showed impressive percentages, with total sales of games, software, CDs and DVDs up 57.4% over the same nine-week holiday shopping period in 2000.

Other retail chains that fared well include the Target Corp., with Target, Mervyn's and Marshall Fields stores; sales for the quarter were up 7.5% over the same period last year. Fourth-quarter sales for the 935 outlets in the Ross Stores Inc. chain were up 19%. Wal-Mart same-store sales were up 8%, and their overall sales were up 16%. JC Penney Co. same-store sales were up 5.4%, but their catalog/online sales were down by 20%. Costco same-store sales were up 7%. The Signet Group of jewelry stores reported U.S. sales were up by 10.8%

Sales for clothing were soft, with most department stores and chains reporting a decline in sales from last year's fourth quarter and possibly reflecting the deep discounts most were offering to boost sales. Gap same-store sales were down 11%, Old Navy's by 14% and Banana Republic's by 3%. The Federated Group was down overall, including Macy's West same-store sales by 8.6% and Bloomingdale's total sales by 8.7%. May Department Stores Co., which owns, among other chains, Lord & Taylor, Robinson's-May, Meier & Frank and Hecht's, reported that its sales were down 6.3%.