Retail sales remain sluggish

Undrai Crawford traveled from Macclesfield on Friday to shop in the Ross store in the Golden East Crossing mall.

“It’s cheap prices, nice clothes,” she said as she looked over a rack of womens’ clothes.

Ross is one of the few retail stores that has been doing well in this down economy, experts say, as shoppers continue to flock to discount stores and shy away from department stores.

Ross Stores Inc. recently reported that sales for the five weeks ending July 4, 2009, increased $38 million over the same period last year.

Stores like Wal-Mart also continue to hold their own, experts say.

Crawford works at Wal-Mart, and said she’s noticed more customers lately.

But overall, retail sales in June and July have been sluggish.

U.S. chain store sales for June 2009 were down 5.1 percent over last year, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers Inc.

“Although June sales continued their very weak performance that has persisted since December 2008, there were some signs of improvement beneath the surface with a handful of teen and value retailers posting surprisingly healthy gains,” said Michael P. Niemira, chief economist and director of research for ICSC in a prepared statement. “These nascent signs of improvement are important since history suggests that consumer spending typically starts off sluggish prior to significant improvement.”

July’s retail numbers also were down.

Retailers began the fiscal month of July with weak consumer spending for seasonal merchandise – including summer clearance goods – as a bout of unseasonably cool weather covered much of the nation, a council press release states. As a result, retail sales declined by 0.9 percent for the week ending July 11, according to the council and Goldman Sachs.

“Mother Nature was not kind to retailers over the last week as July’s retail fiscal month began with the coldest week in 12 years for the nation as a whole – according to Weather Trends International,” Niemira said. “The cool weather pared seasonal demand, which accentuated the challenges for the industry from the economy and from reduced clearance for some retailers that did not stock up for the season.”

Erin Hershkowitz, a spokesman for the shopping center council, said in a telephone interview Friday that most department stores have been struggling in the past few years.

“There was a point a lot of them were closing down even during the time of economic prosperity,” she said.

She said shopping centers with discounters, wholesale clubs and drug stores are doing well right now.

“Your discount-driven shopping center that would have a Wal-Mart, maybe have a drug store, a supermarket, are the shopping centers that are going to sustain and get through this difficult time now,” she said. “The ones that are (offering) more luxury driven, more discretionary-type purchases are now showing more difficulties.”

James Waddell of Rocky Mount said he has been spending more time in Wal-Mart lately.

He has more time to shop now that he’s retired.

“I believe that with the economy like it is people are willing to take a little more time to save that money,” he said.

He said his wife also has been purchasing more school supplies at Wal-Mart lately for her students who can’t afford them.

“She’ll buy notebooks, pencil and crayons, a lot of school supplies for children,” he said.

On Friday morning, Samuel Williams was comparison-shopping at Wal-Mart for a 40-inch television set.

He retiree recently moved to Rocky Mount from California.

“I shop more at Wal-Mart now. Prices are better – even for food,” he said.