While different parts of the country are fairing better than others during the economic recession, evidence of our recovery is still tenuous at best.
Retail sales numbers for November were disappointing for many. Retailers, such as department stores or those with exposure to apparel were down. Dillard's, Macy's, JCPenney and Target saw their same-store sales decline 11%, 6.1%, 5.9% and 1.5%, respectively. Saks was down an astonishing 26.1%, while Abercrombie & Fitch dropped 17%. This according to numbers released over the past few days.
Kohl's, Ross Stores and Nordstrom were the surprises as their same-store sales of 3.3%, 8% and 2%, respectively, met or exceeded Wall Street's expectations.
US government data on retail sales isn't due until December 11, 2009. That data will be a better overall reflection of the retail sector's performance. Also, US retailer Wal-Mart has not yet reported.
While experts blame some of the weakness on warmer-than-normal temperatures, the general feel is that there was an overly-optimistic level of expectations for the US consumer's willingness to spend money during the economic uncertainty. Based on these latest numbers, sales will mostly likely continue to be slow nationally as we head in the final weeks before Christmas.
The reality: there are still a number of people in the US who are in no position to spend any money outside of necessities.
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