I was reading an article on Holiday sales results in the
AJC. Red stores like Walmart had to hustle and use sharp discounts to meet projections, while Blue stores like Costco exceeded Wall Street projections.
More below the fold.
NEW YORK -- The 2004 holiday shopping season turned out to be a bumpy one, with last-minute shoppers giving some retailers solid results but other storeowners struggling to a disappointing finish.
It was hard to discern a trend Thursday as merchants reported December sales, the final assessment of the holiday season. There were strong and weak performers in nearly every retail sector -- Costco Wholesale Corp., Target Corp. and upscale stores like Neiman Marcus Group Inc. all surpassed Wall Street projections but Sears, Roebuck and Co., Gap Inc., Pier 1 Imports Inc. and jeweler Zale Corp. were among the disappointments.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which had to step up discounting after a slow start to the season, posted a decent but not outstanding 3 percent rise in same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year. That was a little better than Wall Street's forecast.
Of course high end stores trended very good, and lesser stores did poorly. I would like to think that liberals who are making an effort to spend their money in Blue stores are having an effect, but I really do not know. Still, this report seems encouraging.