Raw Data Report: Department Stores

Each day, Wall Street is flooded with stock research offering a multitude of conflicting investment opinions. As such, TickerMine is not in the business of providing more opinions. We believe that accurate raw data points can be used to gain insight in to the stock selection and valuation process.

TickerMine Report: Target (TGT)

Target Unscathed By Housing Market Woes

In a recent survey of 30 Target stores across the US, 73% reported that business is currently very strong or above average, while only 10% reported sales below average. 33% reported that the weak housing market and economic worries are hurting their business, although an additional 17% expect economic woes to impact business in the future. 57% of respondents stated that their location has excess inventory that would need to be discounted, but many of the items mentioned were seasonal, such as winter clothing and Easter merchandise. The top-selling brands of women's clothing cited were Mossimo (23%), Isaac Mizrahi (20%) and Jovovich-Hawk (17%)

TickerMine Report: Wal-Mart (WMT)

Wal-Mart Business Still Holding Strong in March As a follow-up to our February story on Wal-Mart, we recently polled 30 Wal-Mart stores across the U.S., and 70% of responding stores said that sales were "Above Average" or "Very Strong." Only 3% of stores said that business was below average. While 43% of stores reported having excess inventory, over one-third of those stores named winter clothing as the main excess item. A vast majority of respondents did not necessarily see the weak housing market and economy as having an effect on business, with 40% saying the economy was not affecting sales while 23% were unsure. Another 7% of respondents felt that business was not currently affected but would be in the near future. Faded Glory, makers of cargo pants and polo shirts, was named as the top selling brand of women's clothes this month by 33% of stores. The trendier Metro 7 line, which also makes plus size items, made its first mention as top seller in our survey, as cited by 20% of stores. The Hanes Mix-and-Match pieces and the dress casual/work clothes line George each were named by 10% of respondents. The top cited brand from February, White Stag, was not mentioned by any respondents.

TickerMine Report: JC Penney (JCP)

Women's Clothing Selling Well at JC Penney, but Excess Inventory Remains TickerMine's most recent survey of JC Penney stores finds that 66% of respondents report that "Women's Clothing" is the top selling category of items in their stores. "Chidren's Apparel" as a category was ranked by 9% as the top selling group of items. 40% of respondents reported that business was the same as last year at this time, while 14% cited slower sales due to bad weather. We alert readers to our view that reports of negative sales should be given great weight, as store employee surveys generally exhibit a positive bias. JC Penney employees identifed categories of merchandise with excess inventory in their stores. 17% of respondets each saw excess inventory of "Womens' Apparel" category and "Jewelry and Watches" category. 11% saw Children's Apparel in excess inventory while 9% saw bedding and furniture category as having excess inventory.

TickerMine Report: Kohl's Corp. (KSS)

Kohl's Corp. Sees Stellar Sales in spite of Sluggish Retail Sector

Kohl's Corp., the US department store chain, is having a reasonable year so far in spite of an overall sluggish retail sector. Tickermine interviewed 30 stores across the nation and asked how business was, whether there was any excess inventory, is the weak economy and housing market jinxing business and which women's fashion line sells best? Of the 30 respondents, five or 16.6% described business as very strong. Twelve or 40% found it above average and 13 or 43.3% found business average. Ten respondents or 33.3% reported having no excess inventory while four respondents or 13.3% reported having some, namely in winter clothing which is typically discounted in spring. The majority of those polled, 13 or 43.3%, weren't sure whether the housing market and weak economy were effecting business but seven respondents or 23.3% saw either some impact now or potential future impact. Only ten or 33.3 % said the markets had no bearing on sales at all. Women's apparel sales ran the gamete from Apt. 9, the dress casual line ranking as the best seller with five respondents or 16.6%. Croft & Barrow, the outerwear and sleepwear line tied with Sonoma, the lifestyle line with four respondents or 13.3% while Vera Wang, Levis and Daisy Fuentes, which makes accessories, swimwear and casual wear brought in three responses or 10%. Chaps, the career and slinky evening wear line ranked bottom with two respondents or 6.6%.

Comments

[User 170608]

It is unlikely at Kohl's that "Women's apparel sales ran the gamete... " as a gamete is "A reproductive cell having the haploid number of chromosomes, especially a mature sperm or egg capable of fusing with a gamete of the opposite sex"

It probably ran the gamut ...

Either way it seems likely that store managers all over are encouraged to be "positive". To put it nicely.

[billddrummer]

I'd be interested to know which of these store locations were surveyed. Remember, among the companies mentioned, there are well over 10,000 outlets. To base an assertion on a sample of 120 locations (1.2%) seems ludicrous to me. It's clear that the recession is a localized phenomenon replicated throughout the country. Without a reasonable sample size there's no credibility to the assertions.

[User 171852]

You can see all the stores that were surveyed at Tickermine.com. You need to sign up for the Diamond Miner service but you can see every call made to every store with location and contact information.

The credibility comes from doing real field work on these names month over month while no one else provides any visibility into their data or sources of data to make conclusions.

You can also see month over month differences in what store reps have said at TickerMine.com. The format of our survey questions does not encourage any particular response or any particular directional response.

Evaluate real data for yourself at tickermine.com

Sincerely,
Casey Ryan
CEO
TickerMine
[e-mail]