Holiday events generated uptick in comps

HTT Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 2/22/2012 2:47:21 PM

New York - Last-minute Valentine's shopping and President's Day sales helped push comps up 2.9% during the third week of February following a 2.7% gain the previous week, according to The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index.

Comps in the department store channel rose 1.9% for the week ended Feb. 18 while same-store sales in the discount tier increased 3.4%.

"Valentine's Day was a major draw for some general merchandise stores, attracting customers and creating spill-over business in other categories," said Catlin Levis, Redbook analyst.

She said the increased traffic also led to higher sales in unrelated categories, including basic and seasonal apparel as well as food and household goods, "all of which saw satisfactory business. Mild weather may have also helped to boost early sales of spring merchandise."