Footwear sales dropped 12 percent compared with the same period a year ago, and consumer electronics and appliances fell 21.4 percent.
Online sales were expected to be flat this holiday season but posted a 3 percent decline from a year ago, the first November-December decline for e-commerce, according to comScore, an Internet tracking firm.
Some early reports of December results were mixed.
Walgreen's said its general merchandise sales increased 0.4 percent last month. Conn's, a regional consumer electronics and appliance chain, turned in its best December ever, with a 5 percent rise in same-store sales. Family Dollar Stores said Wednesday that fiscal first-quarter profit rose 13.5 percent and said same-store sales rose 6 percent in December. But Borders Group reported a 14 percent drop in December.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect apparel chains to post some of the worst declines. Overall sales of apparel fell 17.3 percent last month, according to SpendingPulse, as consumers made do with the clothes they had.
Teens and their mothers have been "empowered by the retailers' relentless discounting in order to reduce inventory and match the competition," said analyst Jennifer Black of Jennifer Black & Associates.
"We hear stories of women walking into stores and asking salespeople for the same deal their friend got just a couple of days ago."
The discount drumbeat continues. This week, $10 coupons and offers to "save up to 70 percent off" are attracting enough buyers to draw down inventories at specialty chains such as New York & Co. and Coldwater Creek, said Eric Beder, an analyst at Brean Murray, Carrett & Co.
UNWRAPPING THE NUMBERS:
--1970: The last time retailers posted as big a decline in combined November- December sales.
--13.6 percent: Share of holiday spending on gift cards, the lowest since 2005, when the category was growing.
--50 percent: Consumers who said they spent less (26 percent) or much less (24 percent) than last year.
--+$0.07: Last week's increase in the price of a gallon of gasoline -- the first after the 15 straight weeks of declines that helped holiday shoppers.
Sources: International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs; U.S. Energy Information Administration
-----
To see more of The Dallas Morning News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dallasnews.com.
Copyright (c) 2009, The Dallas Morning News
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
WMT, FDO, GME, CONN, JCP, SKS, JWN, WAG, TRIN, TRI,
A service of YellowBrix, Inc.
