The Retail Outlook: What The Major National Chains Are Saying
First, a great BIG hat tip to RetailSails, who accumulated these quotes for their blog
.
I wanted to re-post these comments for my readers. I've been writing for quite a while now that nobody should be planning for a sales increase until it actually happens. Here's what the executives of a few major national chains have been saying the last couple of weeks about their thinking and planning for the fall selling season.
Again, thanks to RetailSails.
Blake W. Nordstrom - President and Director - Nordstrom
"Though July represented some improvement, our plans remain unchanged for the balance of the year. We really don't see outside of this unique sale event a change with the customer. Our grounded plans do allow us to be able to respond timely and effectively if an upturn were to occur," "And we believe we're planned accordingly, with grounded plans on expense and inventory and all the key metrics of our business to give us the necessary flexibility and upside to respond accordingly when that demand hopefully improves."
Karen M. Hoguet - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President - Macy's
"So our guidance is not anticipating any enormous improvement. I did say that I am cautiously optimistic that we will start to get some benefit from the My Macy's rollout in the fourth quarter, as we did in the test 20 districts last year. But that remains to be seen and obviously a lot depends on the economic environment which I don't think any of us can predict at this point."
Kevin Mansell - President, Chief Executive Officer, Director - Kohl's
"All of our primary research and our own response rates on events have continued to indicate the consumer is very focused on stretching their dollar, making their budget go further, and seeking optimum value." "We recognize that our spring results over-achieved our expectations in both sales and earnings per share. At the same time, both our primary and our secondary research indicate the consumer continues to face economic challenges and intends to continue to shop less and looks to seek ways to stretch her dollar. We would expect the second half of this year to continue to be a fight for market share."
Mike Jeffries - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer - Abercrombie & Fitch
"We continue to be confronted with very challenging conditions during the second quarter." "Consumer spending patterns domestically continue to be dictated by cost and value propositions and this is clearly a headwind for our premium brands."
Stephen I. Sadove - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer - Saks
"As we look to fall, we expect that the economic conditions will remain extremely difficult for the balance of the year if not beyond, and we're continuing to plan accordingly." "Although sales trends are undoubtedly more stable than they were in the fall of last year, the current economic and retail landscape is still uncertain and we know that predicting future sales and gross margin performance with any certainty remains very difficult."
Gregg Steinhafel - President & CEO - Target
"Consumers remained cautious resulting in weak guest traffic and transaction size, retail prices especially in food and commodities continued to decline resulting in deflationary pressures and the economic recovery appeared to temporary stall as the country cycled the impact of last year's stimulus checks."
Eduardo Castro-Wright - Vice Chairman - WalMart
"We expect that the economy will remain difficult. Our own surveys point to ongoing concerns by consumers about their own financial situation. More people are concerned about unemployment."
Mike Duke - President and CEO - WalMart
"Consumers continue to face a difficult global economy, having to do more with less." "Overall, our customers are more disciplined in their spending. There's a new normal now where people are saving more, consuming less, and being more frugal and thoughtful in their purchases."
Copyright (c) 2012 Ted Hurlbut
by: Ted Hurlbut
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