Luxury Department Stores Continue To Face Tough Times

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jan 11th 2008 at 9:03AM

More bad news for the U.S. luxury department stores. WWD has the list of sales figures for December and they aren't pretty. Same-store sales declined 5.4 percent on average for the department store sector with a total of 6.5 percent lost year over year. The luxury retailers were hit hardest, Nordstrom, down 4 percent, Neiman Marcus down 2.9 percent, Macy's fell 7.9 percent and Sak's eked out a .08 percent gain. Out of the 40 retailers WWD tracked, 27 reported negative same-stores sales for the month. The mid-range departments stores were hit too, J.C. Penney fell 7.9 percent and Kohl's declined 0.7 percent. Discount stores did better with Wal-Mart up 2.6 percent and Target up 5 percent. Specialty stores dipped too (3 percent) but overall it was the department stores that suffered the most with a 6.3 percent decline overall. I wonder if the fact that the Christmas holiday season has turned into more of a gadget frenzy and less of a clothing holiday is partly behind this or if this is just more fall out as the masstige market, once fueled by the aspirational shopper, continues to decline.

Tags: holiday shopping, luxury shopping, nordtsrom, retail, shopping

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

just me Jan 11th 2008 11:49AM

Has 'masstige' really become a word that needs no definition indicator? What does it mean anyway? Who coined this word?

Soffie Feb 12th 2008 4:33PM

I agree . What the heck is masstige. Luxury is going back to people who can afford to chose. The suoer high end stores are doing just fine . Non of the stores mentioned cater to the ubber wealthy. Neimans , Macys, Nordie all cater to that masstige wanna be customer.