Retail sales not measuring up in November

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 11/26/2002 2:02:00 PM

New York — As retailers geared toward what they hope will be an onrush of shoppers for the holidays, same-store sales, as measured by the Redbook Retail Sales Average, registered their second straight weekly drop for the third week of November.

Comp-store sales were down 0.6 percent for the week ended Nov. 23, following a 0.5 percent decline for the previous week.

For the month to date, same-store checkouts were flat compared with the same period in 2001. Measured against October of this year, comp-store numbers were off 0.2 percent.

Redbook reported that the retail sales environment was less prosperous for the third week of November, as compared to the second week.

Once again, discounters fared better last week than department stores. Redbook reported that the nation's mass merchants boosted their same-store results by 1.4 percent, while department stores saw their comp-store sales drop 3.5 percent.