Wampum

Consumer priorities

The paragraphs below were buried deep in a Reuter's piece on how last minute retails sales "saved" the critical selling season for some retailers. Now, ignoring the fact that retailers had to lure in those last minute consumers with deep discounts, the item "demographics" are intriguing:

Kohl's said its December same-store sales slipped 1.2 percent, matching Wall Street expectations, but slashed its fourth-quarter forecast to a range of 68 cents to 70 cents per share. Analysts had expected 88 cents, according to Reuters Research. Most analysts had already lowered their forecasts amid expectations for a poor December performance.

"The trend that we're seeing is, the retailers with expertise in fashion ... had strong sales," said Bill Dreher, retail analyst with Deutsche Bank.

"It's the women's fashion in the moderate channel that really seemed to miss this holiday," he said. "We are seeing sales under pressure and even greater pressure on the gross margin side."

I noticed this trend at Bean this season; women calling and buying presents for others, but holding off on purchases for themselves. In light of Walmart's pre-holiday warnings that they saw a trend of "payday shopping", I'm still not getting the warm recovery-fuzzies.

Update: After hearing a similar report on NPR just a minute ago, I'm thinking more about the demographics of this holiday shopping. Jewelry store sales were robust, as were other luxury goods. I obviously can't escape my years as an anthropologist on gender, as I'm wondering if there's currently a gender-gap in consumer confidence. Are men, believing their finances will only get better under the current "recovery" willing to buy their SOs and families frivolous luxury items, whereas women, still watching grocery and heating bills climb, are still spending with caution?

Guess it's time to see if consumer confidence numbers break down by gender.

Posted by MB Williams at January 8, 2004 12:44 PM | TrackBack