Who woulda guessed?

Here's a news flash, kids - trends continue to play out as expected. It’s all about consumables and discounting. Mall traffic and sales are weak, which shows clearly in comps for mall-based concepts. The consumer appears to be consolidating shopping trips to places like Wal-Mart and Costco that allow them to buy basics as well as discretionary items. Television sales are down in even the warehouse clubs, but up at Wal-Mart as the commoditization of flat screens continues. No retailers that I surveyed guided down.

Wal-Mart’s numbers were more than double expectations, coming in at 3.9% for the total company (1.4% expected). Of particular note: US Stores were up 4% (guidance was 0-2% and consensus was 1.4%). They mentioned specifically that they are seeing a bump from the stimulus checks. In a different press meeting this morning the number $350 million thus far was bandied about. Given that the average SuperCenter does $1 million per day (old fact, but probably still pretty correct), that might be a bit significant. Both traffic and ticket were up.

Target was within guidance but is lagging Wal-Mart and others who sell more food. TGT’s consumables exposure is about 20% of sales, and over 40% of sales (last year anyway) were in the weak apparel and home categories.

Nordstrom’s 10.9% comp was within the expected range of 8-12%. June expected to be VERY weak as the Half Yearly sale for Women & Children was moved from June to May. The two months combined should be fine.

Saks, a favorite on the upper end of the scale until now, fell out of bed. Seems like there might have been a few too many friends and family discounts given lately.

As for the rest of the mall? Nothing to write home about except Aeropostale (wow!), Zumiez and Hot Topic. Almost everyone else did worse than expected, in some cases (Gap) by unexplainably high percentage points. It's bad out there folks, but could you at least TRY, please?