Same-store sales on goal for February

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 2/21/2007 12:58:00 PM

New York -- Same-store retail sales perked up by 2.9% during the second week of February, helped by a pair of sales promotions for Valentine's Day and President's Day, the Johnson Redbook Index reported.

Given a boost from the double dose of promotions, sales moved up substantially from the 2.5% increase of the week before.

"Like other secular celebrations, Valentine's Day continues to grow in importance, but the week's big boost, especially for department stores, came from President's Day sales, with most companies reporting business that was on or above plan," said Redbook analyst Catlin Levis.

But the good cheer didn't go all the way around, the analyst noted, and "some retailers trailed plan, attributing their poor performance to the fact that winter storms in parts of the Northeast and Midwest kept customers away from stores and disrupted early spring and Valentine's Day sales."

Given the week's strong results, overall sales through the first two weeks of February were on plan with a 2.7% increase.