Department stores disappoint in November

New York -- Blaming superstorm Sandy for its disappointing November results, Macy’s reported a 0.7% dip in same-store sales and missed Wall Street’s expected 1.5% rise. The results were echoed by much of the category.



"Despite the largest-volume Thanksgiving weekend in our company's history, we were not able to overcome the weak start to the month, which included the disruption of Hurricane Sandy," said Terry J. Lundgren, chairman, president and CEO of Macy’s. Total sales for the month slipped 0.6% to $2.45 billion.



For the year to date, Macy’s sales totaled $20.786 billion, up 3.2% from total sales of $20.145 billion in the first 43 weeks of 2011. On a same-store basis, Macy’s sales were up 3.1%.



Online sales (Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com combined) were up 39.2% in November and 37.1% in 2012 year-to-date. Online sales are included in the same-store sales calculation for Macy's.



Kohl’s Corp. experienced a dismal month as well, reporting a same-store sales drop of 5.6%, well short of analysts’ predicted increase of 1.9%. Total sales fell 4.9% to $1.84 billion.



President and CEO Kevin Mansell said: “Though November sales were lower than expectations, we are encouraged by improved sales over the Thanksgiving week.”



Other department store results include:

• Nordstrom slipped 1.1%; and


• Bon-Ton edged down 0.1%.