June comps just ahead of target

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 6/27/2006 12:24:00 PM

New York -- Same-store sales momentum continued to build during the fourth week of June, rising 3.4%, helped by the Father's Day promotion and increasingly warm weather, which helped spur sales of seasonal merchandise, the Johnson Redbook reported.

Comps for the four weeks month-to-date are now slightly ahead of plan, up 3.3% (vs. a target of 3.2%), and also slightly ahead on a month-over-month basis, with June sales so far up 2.0% above May levels (target was 1.9%).

Breaking out results by region, "The West Coast did particularly well during the week," said Redbook analyst Catlin Levis. Discounters, focused on consumers' day-to-day needs, sharply outperformed their department store peers, pushing same-store sales up by 4.0%, compared with a more moderate gain of 2.5% at their full-price cousins.