We all knew holiday was bad at retail. Now we know just how bad it was at core stores. While sales were pretty terrible, there was one bright spot overall: sales improved in December compared to November, according to December same store sales data from ActionWatch.
The ActionWatch retail panel includes approximately 200 stores. The same-store sales panel includes approximately 100 of those stores that have been in the panel for a year and thus can provide year-over-year comparison data.
Here’s the report from Cary Allington:
“Preliminary numbers from the ActionWatch Retail Panel show a sales decline of 11.2% for the month of December compared to last year. This revenue drop is actually somewhat of a relief compared to November’s 17.6% decline over the prior year.
“The bright spots in the December numbers include an increase of over 6% for woven shirts (which includes flannels), along with sales increases for both shorts and dresses. Sales of men’s/boys’ shoes were flat compared to last December.”
“All other significant product classes were down with hardgoods being hit especially hard. Many accessory classes enjoy peak sales in December, and socks and wallets actually saw small increases over last year. However, watch sales were down almost 19%. Hat sales, which were only down 5.7% compared to last year, created the highest volume in December for the accessory category (which was down 6.4% overall).”
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