Comp Sales See Increases

From today’s HFN (emphasis is  mine):

NEW YORK–In another sign of an emerging recovery at retail, the major chains tracked by HFN all reported same-store sales growth in February.

Leading the pack, as it has throughout the economy’s struggles, was TJX with a 10 percent gain in same-store sales. Costco said its comparable-club sales rose 4 percent (factoring out gasoline sales, which pushed the comp number up 9 percent), and BJ’s Wholesale Club said its same-club sales increased 3.9 percent—7.5 percent when factoring in gas. Target’s same-store number was up 2.4 percent last month.

Among the department stores, Kohl’s and Macy’s each reported 3.7 percent pickups in same-store sales, while J.C. Penney said its comp-store sales edged up 1.2 percent. Even Dillard’s—whose same-store numbers had been languishing for a long stretch—had an up month in February with a 2 percent gain.

Gregg Steinhafel, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Target, said the mass merchant’s rise in year-over-year store traffic led to a same-store sales increase “modestly above our expectations.” At Kohl’s, Kevin Mansell, chairman, president and CEO, said transactions per store had a strong February.

Terry Lundgren, chairman, president and CEO of Macy’s, said both Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s did well despite the winter storms that affected traffic in their stores in certain markets at key selling times. “If not for the storms, we estimate that our February same-store sales would have been up by approximately 5 percent,” Lundgren said.