February Sales Show Strength

By Cecile B. Corral -- Home Textiles Today, 3/7/2005 12:00:00 AM

New York —

Although February was a weak month for home textiles sales, overall, retailers posted positive same-store gains.

Propelling that momentum were apparel and accessories merchandise and food products, for the most part, retailers reported.

The big comp winners for the month included a mixed group of stores: Target Corp. with a 9 percent gain, Saks Fifth Avenue Stores with 7.1 percent, Costco with 7 percent, BJ's Wholesale Club with 6.7 percent and Stein Mart with 6.2 percent.

At Target, decorative home was one of the store's poorest performers, along with garden place, home improvement, automotive and sporting goods.

Its best merchandise categories for the period were intimates and hosiery, ladies apparel, pharmacy and entertainment.

The comp sales losers list was led by Pier 1 Imports with a 15.3 percent decline, followed by Hancock Fabrics with an 8.1 percent drop, ShopKo stores down by 5.6 percent, May Dept. Stores losing 4.1 percentage points and Value City Department Stores, down 4 percent.

Pier 1 blamed its decline on a lack of national television advertising, some inclement weather and transitional store layouts with leaner inventories. On the heels of its new national advertising campaign and the arrival of new merchandise, the company expects to see an improved performance sometime around the second quarter.

“Throughout (February), stores continued to transition the sell-through of clearance merchandise as well as position newly arriving merchandise assortments in preparation for the company's new national advertising campaign that will launch on March 21,” said Marvin Girouard, chairman and CEO. “We expect that with these new initiatives, it will take until the end of the first quarter, or into the second quarter before we see increases in customer traffic and conversion rates.”

Target Rises, Pier 1 Sinks

February sales for key retailers
Four weeks ended Feb. 26a , (dollar amounts in millions)