US August apparel sales drop slightly - MasterCard
By Sarah Coffey
NEW YORK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - U.S. shoppers trimmed spending on clothes and shoes over the critical August back-to-school season as they concentrated on necessities like food and gasoline, MasterCard Advisors said in a report on Wednesday.
But sales declines appear to be stabilizing. Overall August apparel sales dropped 1.4 percent from a year ago, with women's apparel down 0.9 percent, the smallest drop since February, according to the report by SpendingPulse, the retail data service of MasterCard Advisors, an arm of MasterCard Worldwide.
"It doesn't appear things are getting dramatically worse, but they're not getting dramatically better," said Michael McNamara, vice president of SpendingPulse. "Overall, July and August are more or less comparable in a lot of ways."
Sales of men's apparel fell 4.4 percent, while overall footwear sales were down 0.6 percent. Specialty apparel sales fell 1.4 percent.
"The retail environment is still difficult. Even though we have seen some gasoline price relief, it still appears there's a significant number of pressures on the consumer that's limiting the year-over-year growth," McNamara said.
SpendingPulse results give an early look at the strength of August same-store sales, which retailers such as Target Corp (TGT.N), Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) and Gap Inc (GPS.N) report on Thursday. Department stores J.C. Penney Co Inc (JCP.N) and Kohl's Corp (KSS.N) are set to report on Wednesday.
August sales include the back-to-school season and are typically an indicator of how consumers will spend for the upcoming holiday season, which is expected to be the slowest since 2001, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.
Looking at three-month moving averages of sales, specialty apparel fell 0.6 percent, women's apparel fell 3.3 percent and men's apparel and footwear rose 2.1 percent and fell 0.6 percent, respectively.
Sales of furniture fell 5.7 percent, as a U.S. housing slump continues to batter sales.
Spending on hotels fell 1.5 percent in the month, as higher fuel prices crimp travel and dampen airline ticket sales.
Luxury spending, including high-end department stores, leather goods and high-end restaurants, is up 11 percent, bolstered by foreign tourists taking advantage of a relatively weak U.S. dollar.
The report said e-commerce sales were up 3.2 percent in August, one of the lowest growth rates in a year and a half. Electronics and appliance sales were down 5.5 percent, slightly worse than July and the third consecutive month of decline.
SpendingPulse data is derived from aggregate sales in the MasterCard U.S. payment network, coupled with estimates on all other payments including cash and checks. (Editing by Braden Reddall)
