It could mean good news for Christmas.
Retail comparable-store sales for the month of October showed signs of improvement due to cooler weather, and not just with the usual suspects.
Instead of discounters like Wal-Mart and Target and warehouse clubs like Costco heading the pack with sales of commodities, specialty stores showed the highest gains for the month.
Teen retailer Pacific Sunwear and women’s retailer Chico’s led the way, racking up 18 percent increases each. Kids retailer Gymboree turned in a successful 14 percent increase and The Gap came in with a surprising 11 percent increase.
Conversely, the discount stores – which sell commodities like toilet paper as well as apparel and shoes, and have been turning in double-digit increases – have taken a turn for the worse. Wal-Mart increased sales by only 4.8 percent and Target posted a mere 1.5 percent increase.
“October was a month where consumers put the brakes on buying hard goods but accelerated apparel purchases for the first time since the spring/summer period,” said Todd Slater, retail analyst at Lazard Freres.
“Cooler temperatures drove sales of sweaters and outerwear, and pent-up demand and easy comparisons with last year allowed comp growth at specialty apparel to be much better than the value-based retailers,” he added.
The Bloomberg composite same-store index rose 3.23 percent in October over the previous year. It also showed greater increases than in September.
Specialty and apparel stores led with an average rise of 5.85 percent. The leading sector for the past months has been the discounters and warehouse clubs.