We've had a wide variety of excuses, whether it be Princess Diana's funeral, the weather, El Nino... Bottom line is August was better than planned and it stole a little bit from the month of September.
Sometimes when retailers get big same-store sales increases, you have to look behind the numbers.
There's concern that earnings estimates will have to be reduced.
As you can see, Christmas is spread out -- not just among December but among January as well. Promotions certainly helped to drive those sales and you can see what the consumer is looking for. It all depend on price.
Basically the economy is sluggish. We are seeing consumers resisting spending and the outlook for the second half of the year is not as bright as it had been. Even Wal-Mart said its second half will not be as strong.
That's disappointing. I think they [Penney] are having some category shifts going on with some of their merchants. They have been promoting but obviously their merchandise isn't appealing to the consumer these days.
The weakness in the stock price, despite the better-than-expected earnings, is due to the company saying it sees same-store sales (sales at stores open a year or more) in the second quarter rising 2-to-4 percent, when yesterday (Monday), Lowe's said 4-to-6 percent.
It's certainly a boon to the luxury business.
They don't have enough promotional inventories in the stores. They'll only be selling full-price and they're already giving out warnings of negative same-store sales declines in February.
Hard electronic retailers, like Best Buy, are seeing more of the tax refund dollars than specialty retailers.
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