Retailer Intelligence

New York -- J.C. Penney Co. on Monday reassured investors that sales trends are improving and reaffirmed its forecast calling for positive same-store sales results in the third quarter, Reuters reported.

The comments were made by Myron Ullman, Penney’s CEO, at the Women's Wear Daily conference on Monday.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in September 2012 versus September 2013 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. Home Depot continued to cut circular pages, down 80% year-over-year to only four for September. Despite this, it has continued to dramatically increase the density of its circular, with a 180% increase in ad blocks per page. On the other hand, Lowe’s saw only minor year-over-year changes, with 25% increases in ad blocks per page and per circular.

Plano, Texas – J.C. Penney Company Inc. reportedly seeks to raise $750 million to $1 billion in cash equity. According to Reuters, J.C. Penney, which is valued at $2.6 billion, is considering issuing new stock shares as well as other unspecified alternatives.

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ECRM compared retail circular advertising in August 2012 versus August 2013 and noted trends occurring across top retail chains. A home improvement promotional arms race between Home Depot and Lowe’s appears to be taking place: Lowe’s saw year-over-year increases of 100%, 75% and 184.4% across circular page count, ad block per page count and ad block per circular count, respectively. Despite these large gains, Lowe’s still appears to be playing catch-up to Home Depot, which continued to run more ad blocks per page and per circular than Lowe’s.

New York -- As turmoil continues to surround J.C. Penney, one investor is upping his support of the embattled retailer even as two other large investors leave. Regulatory filings on Wednesday revealed that billionaire investor George Soros has added two million shares to his current 19.98 million in Penney holdings.

The latest investment makes Soros Fund Management Penney’s second-largest investor, behind disgruntled hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.

San Diego – PriceSmart reported substantial increases in both net warehouse club sales and same-store warehouse club sales during July of this year as compared to July of last year. For the month of July 2013, net warehouse club sales increased 11.9% to $188.5 million, from $168.5 million in July a year earlier. There were 31 warehouse clubs in operation at the end of July 2013 and 29 warehouse clubs in operation at the end of July 2012.

Boston -- Although Target has narrowed Walmart’s basket advantage, the world’s largest retailer continues to demonstrate its price advantage, according to Kantar Retail’s semi-annual pricing study.

With an overall branded basket 2.4% less expensive than Target’s, Walmart’s overall price gap has still remained within a few percentage points of Target’s, although its lead has narrowed since the last iteration of the study. Importantly, Target’s edible basket was within cents of Walmart’s.

ISSAQUAH, Wash. — Costco has started the summer right, reporting sales of $9.92 billion for the month of June, the five-week period ended July 7, an 8% increase over the same period last year. 

For the 44-week period that ended Sunday, sales were $87.05 billion, also an 8% increase over the same period last year. For the month and the 44-week period, same-store sales rose 6%.

ECRM compared retail circular advertising in June 2012 vs. June 2013 and noticed some common overall trends across top retail chains. Although Staples and Walmart each saw large year-over-year increases in circular page count, page count was fairly stable overall, with none of these key retailers seeing a decrease of more than 13%.