Light at end of tunnel brighter

The better-than-expected 2.9% same-store sales decline Target produced last month was hailed as a victory of sorts even though sales growth isn’t expected to return for some time and conditions remain challenging for the apparel and home businesses.

“Guest traffic in August was essentially flat to last year, marking a meaningful improvement from second quarter trends,” Target chairman, president and CEO Gregg Steinhafel said. “We’re pleased with these results, which we believe reflect the resilience of both our guests and our strategy in a challenging environment.”

The comp decline was driven by a reduction in average transaction sizes, with apparel comps declining in the mid single-digit range and home declining in the high single digits. Looking ahead to September, even with the benefit of the late arrival of Labor day and an easy comparison to the prior year when comps declined 3%, Target is forecasting another month of negative same-store sales with a decline in the mid to low single digits.