Nordstrom’s Weak Christmas Sales Adds To Gloomy Expectations

We are just weeks away when retailers report their fourth quarter results. Nordstrom
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sales in the nine weeks ended January 1 were down 3.5% and the Rack was down 7.6%. Those figures, terrible as they are, were not a surprise since the week before Christmas the U.S. was covered with ice, and storms were preventing costumers from shopping for gifts.

Nordstrom is not the only company who gave a hint about the severity of the weather and the apathy of customers. Macy’s had news in early January that holiday sales were going to bring fourth quarter result to the lower end of expectation. The National Retail Federation (NRF) also scaled back their optimistic forecast of 6 – 8 % sales increase to 5.3% and even Lululemon found that their results would be below plan. Recent announcements by Saks 5^th Avenue, Walmart
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, Gap
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and H & M indicate that major retailers cut back on staff. In many cases the tech departments were shrunk.