HOLIDAY SHOPPING Discounters, luxury stores post strong November sales

Wholesale clubs saw sales rise 9.7 percent; department store sales dipped.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Luxury retailers and wholesale club stores logged strong same-store sales gains in November, indicating that Americans may be tucking pricier gifts under the Christmas tree this year along with some bargains.
A string of California companies blew past expectations in the month, including Gap Inc., Guess Inc., Bebe Inc. and Pacific Sunwear of California Inc.
But overall retail sales nationwide rose 3.6 percent -- less than the anticipated 4 percent. And that prompted some experts to adjust their forecasts downward for the holiday shopping season. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, which conducted a tally of 74 chain stores nationwide, now expects same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, to rise 4 percent instead of 4.5 percent, said Michael Niemira, the bank's chief economist. Same-store sales are considered the best measure of a retailer's health.
The National Retail Federation, the industry's largest trade group, said Thursday that it was sticking to its prediction that sales would rise 5.7 percent, to $217.4 billion.
Big gains
In some ways, November's results reflected past trends, with wholesale club stores as a group rising 9.7 percent -- led by a 14 percent jump for Costco Wholesale Corp. -- and department stores collectively dipping 1.1 percent. Discount stores rose 4 percent, with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest company, posting a 3.9 percent gain and Target Corp. advancing by 6.2 percent.
San Francisco-based Gap, the nation's largest specialty retailer and parent of 4,200 Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic stores, saw same-store sales rise 6 percent, with all U.S. divisions posting increases. Banana Republic, its priciest chain, posted the largest gains, at 14 percent.
Pacific Sunwear, parent of PacSun and d.e.m.o chains, one of retail's hottest performers, sailed ahead of the pack in November, logging an 11.7 percent increase on top of an identical gain last year. In another high note, Los Angeles-based Guess' same-store sales rose 12.3 percent, nearly double what analysts were expecting, and Brisbane, Australia-based Bebe notched an increase of 9.1 percent after falling 15.1 percent last year.
City of Industry, Calif.-based Hot Topic Inc., which sells music-themed clothes and accessories to teens, logged a 7.3 percent gain, but not all teen apparel retailers sprinted from the gate.
Poor showings
Department stores logging particularly disappointing results included Sears, Roebuck & amp; Co., whose same-store sales slipped 3.6 percent, and Kohl's Corp., which dropped 4.4 percent.
Most interesting to some analysts was the way higher-end retailers, including Seattle-based Nordstrom Inc., strutted merrily through the month.
"What strikes us as remarkable is that the most successful chains were the very upscale ones -- Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus -- they did extremely well," said Kurt Barnard, president of Barnard's Retail Trend Report.
Economists attribute the upturn at the high-end, which has been building in recent months, to an improving economy, plumper stock portfolios and tax rebates that favor higher-income households.
"A lot of the strength we're seeing in cash flow is weighted toward the higher-income households right now," said Scott Hoyt, of consulting business Economy.com. "So they're increasing their spending more rapidly than lower income households."