| Chain Store Sales |
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Released On 1/5/2012 For Dec, 2011
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Highlights
Chain stores mostly report gains for December which point to monthly strength for the government's retail sales report next Thursday. About half of the 30 chains or so that have posted their results this morning show improvement in year-on-year rates of sales during December compared to year-on-year rates during November. Several chains are lifting guidance following the results which offers solid confirmation of strength.
But not all chains report strength with the balance split between mixed results and lower results. Some chains say December's warm weather hurt sales of cold weather goods including heaters, some soft goods, and some auto products. Some chains also had to mark down goods heavily in an effort to spur sales.
Consumer spending, based on today's results, may not be robust, but the ex-auto ex-gas category of the government's retail sales report gained only 0.2 percent in November which, given the net strength in today's reports, looks to be an easy comparison for December.
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Definition
Monthly sales volumes from individual department, chain, discount, and apparel stores are usually reported on the first Thursday of each month. Chain store sales correspond with roughly 10 percent of retail sales. Chain store sales are an indicator of retail sales and consumer spending trends. There is no official composite number for each month's sales, merely sales figures for individual chains. Also, which chains release monthly numbers varies over time as corporate policies sometimes change in regard to providing monthly numbers to the public in addition to quarterly data.
Why Investors Care
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